The Ashes like Snow
by dustyrose03
Summary: It isn’t safe for anyone, you speak out and you are assassinated. If you have been seen with the suspected enemy, you will be hung. You harbour fugitives, you and your whole family will be shot. This is the way the world we live in works. AH ExB
1. Prolouge

**The Ashes like Snow**

**Full Summary: Two families, one world and a constant battle of violence and death. It isn't safe for anyone, you speak out and you are assassinated. If you are seen with the suspected enemy, you will be hung, If you harbour fugitives, you and your whole family will be shot. This is the way the world we live in works. Bella has never known any different. She is at the core of the Swan's, one of the two battling families, but when she finds herself in a terrifying situation, will she find that what she has always been told, isn't always true. **

_Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."_

_Hermann Goering_

----~~~~----

For hundreds of years, maybe even thousands; a war has been waging on the face of our very own Earth, polluting and damaging the gift from our dear Lord. This war has resulted in millions being killed and slaughtered, by genocide or just simply blind hatred. You see children scream for their Mother and Father, as they witness their parent's body's drop to the floor, lifeless. These children usually end up joining the armies at young ages, fighting in vengeance for their families and also protecting their honour.

Poverty is at its all time highest, with more than half of the world's population dying on the streets from hunger and various diseases. The small amount of people who are lucky enough to have protection and money, see this happening, but do nothing about it, as they are scared to get involved and not wanting to leave their safe comfort zone.

However, not everyone felt like that. My own Mother decided to stand up against this and do something about the hardship, but from that I learnt that if you rebel against anything you disagree with; you will not make it out alive, even if it is one of your loved ones who has to do the unworthy deed.

I was seven years old when I saw my Father shoot my Mother in between the eyes, making a small bullet wound in her forehead, blood running down her face, coating her pale, creamy skin with a dark red sticky liquid. Surprisingly enough though, I didn't scream or cry when I witnessed this act. As far as I was concerned, my Mother had betrayed all of us and she deserved what she got. But as I got older, I couldn't ignore the empty void of missing a mother figure during my teen years, when I needed her the most.

So, you're thinking: Why would a husband shoot his own wife if they loved each other? Well, the answer to that is quite simple; that is just the way the world works. If anyone you know spoke out against the system, that was it. End of, but also because my Father had to set an example for other people. If it was seen that he wouldn't hesitate to take out his own wife, then that must mean that he meant business.

But it was even harder for me and my Father than other people. So I guess I should tell you about the roots of this war.

There are two large groups, mostly made up of two families, but sometimes there would be the occasional helper from the outside. For as long as history has been recorded, these two organizations have hated each other, resulting in violence and death. It has nothing to do with racial differences or religion; it is just an ongoing feud that can never seem to be stopped. I guess you could say that they were fighting for power or world domination, but that part could never be figured out.

My Father and I were part of one of these organizations. Heck, we are the core of it, my Father being the leader and all, which also meant that I was in constant danger of terrorist attacks or being assassinated, just because of my blood line.

There have been many protesters, demanding peace, but whenever everyone tries to come to an agreement, it all falls down again like those building blocks I played with when I was younger. You think you are getting somewhere, but it all falls down at the last minute. In the end, everyone decided that it was no use, the two families couldn't co-exist with each other, it was inhumanly impossible.

However, for the last 5 years, things had been pretty quiet on the war front. There had been no attacks from the Cullen's – or more commonly known as the cold ones. But my Father still told me to be on the lookout, silence usually meant that they were planning something, waiting like lions crouching behind the bushes; waiting to pounce when we least expected it.

At the moment us- The Swans, were in power, making sure that everyone kept to our laws and any Cullen's that could be wormed out were arrested, tortured and sometimes even murdered with capital punishment.

So how did this small feud become a worldwide problem? Well most of the battles and fighting that is occurring isn't directly supported by us. Mostly they are branch groups from our organization, trying to stir more trouble than there already is.

But that didn't mean that it wasn't there.

I had seen countless of orders my Father had issued to his workers – or as I like to sometimes call them; mindless minions- commanding them to slaughter villages throughout the world that were suspected to been harbouring Cullen fugitives, or conspiring against us. I had heard radio broadcasts from such places, recording the terror that was engulfing people. But I never thought twice about it, which was the way I was brought up, I never knew any different so why should I care?

However, don't assume that our entire world strived from this violence. Usually, if you lived in the developed countries like America, Canada, Europe and so on... You were reasonable safe as long as you ventured far from the fighting, it is better to be safe than sorry.

I stared out of the window, fingering the swan pendant around my neck which symbolised who I am; watching the storm that was raging outside, lightening flashing in the sky and thunder rumbling so loud, it sounded as though a jet was roaring over your house, rain dropping in heavy bullets onto the ground, drowning plants. This kind of weather had been around before I was born, as the sun never shines here. It was called pathetic fallacy; it reflected the mood of which our city constantly lay in; moody, glum, anger...

I wonder if this war will ever end. And if it does, who will be the ones to end it?

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**I am going to regret starting another story in the morning. But sometimes, I just can't help myself. Well this is my first M rated story for violence, and later chapters. So you like it? Good? Bad?**

**Review!! I need to know your thoughts :)**

**x**


	2. Just the start

**Hmm... I'm really enjoying this story all ready :) I did finish it last night, but I kept re-reading it over and over, checking that everything was alright.**

**Peoples ages (yeah I have to know everyones ages, don't ask, it is something I _have_to know) : Bella:15 Jacob:16. Sam:25. Jared:24. Paul:22. Embry and Quil: 20 (They are twins btw) Charlie: 36. Billy: 43. Edward: 19. James: 27. Laurent: 29. **

**Also I bumped this story down to T for the moment. I will put it back up when I get to those chapters, but they wont be until way later on in the story.**

**This chapter is dedicated to Pianolinist for giving me the first review on this story :D**

**x**

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_Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.  
- Benjamin Franklin_

Bella's POV:

"Billy, I don't know what to do about this anymore. It is getting beyond my control!" My Father was on the phone to my 'Uncle' Billy.

I say 'Uncle' because technically he wasn't my Uncle; he was someone my Father had been best friends with throughout their whole lives. Well, more like brothers as my Grandfather adopted Billy when he was a baby. (Billy was seven years older than Charlie) Thus I had six 'cousins', all descendants of Billy and his wife (who like my Mother spoke out, and was murdered). Despite not being direct family, my Father accepted them all into our organization, as they were as good as our own relatives.

There was a pause whilst my Father listened to what Billy was saying and then spoke again. "Yes, I understand that. But what am I to do? Your sons can take care of themselves more than my Isabella can; they are relative for her protection." There was another gap of silence. "No, of course I'm not putting them in danger on purpose; they understand what they are doing and allowed to decline at any time." Billy obviously was shouting now, as I could hear the faint echo of his voice coming from the phone through the door. "Look, we'll talk about this later OK? I need to deal with something first." Then he hung up the phone.

Whilst listening to my Father, I had taken up a crouching position on the blood red carpet, outside of his office. My ear was pressed against the crack between the door and the frame. However, I could no longer detect any movement inside of his office, which meant there was no use me listening anymore. I wasn't going to find out any more now.

I heard lightly muffled footsteps coming from around the corner, but I didn't get up in time to step away from the door so I didn't look like the eavesdropper I really was.

"Snooping again Bella?" said an all too familiar voice, as he rounded the corner. I smiled as I saw my best friend Jacob, who was smiling and raising his eyebrows at me in return. He knew all about my intrusive ways, but unlike his other siblings, he always made jokes about it. His oldest brother; Sam, would've marched me into my Father's office and informed him of what I had been doing, but Jacob usually encouraged me to do it, and occasionally he would join me.

"Well, you get told things, you don't have to eavesdrop like me to find out important information," I pointed out.

"Bells, you know he never tells you things because he loves you and wants to protect you from the real world," Jacob said, giving me a light hug. He always sensed my anger at being left out on the big news.

"Yes, and because I'm also a girl," I added.

Jacob thought for a moment as though thinking of a way to disagree with that, but apparently he seemed to be unable to come up with some sort of excuse, so he shrugged his shoulders and laughed. "True." I scowled. This was one of the downsides of being a girl. The men usually think that you are not smart or strong enough to know information.

"Are you ever going to stop? Because if Sam or Jared catches you..." Jared was Jacob's second oldest brother and was almost as strict as Sam.

"Well... you could always tell me instead," I hinted, "it would save me a whole lot of trouble...and carpet burns," I added as an afterthought.

"Nice try Bells, but you're going to have to put up a stronger argument than that. It is 'classified information' after all."

I opened my mouth to retaliate, when I heard a voice coming through the door behind me. "Isabella? Is that you?" My Father called. I cursed inwardly. I hoped that he hadn't heard Jacob and me talking about me listening to his conversations.

"You'd better go _Isabell_a," Jacob said, repressing a laugh. "Your Father wants to talk to you."

I stuck my tongue out at him, and pretended to hit him before turning and opening the door and entering my Father's office.

"Yes, it was me," I said, lingering in the doorway.

"What do you want then?" he said, a little aggressively. I was a tiny bit offended that he was speaking to me that way, but I knew from my snooping that he was under a lot of pressure at the moment. From what, however, I still had to figure out.

"Father, may I ask you something?" I asked, sitting down on the soft leather chair in front of his wooden desk.

My Father had his head in his hands and was leaning forward onto his work area. He moved his hands up to his hair and clutched it, as though trying to pull it out. I knew he would never do something like that on purpose, as my Father adored his brown hair, which curled in a few places. So in the end, I put it down to relieving his stress.

"Not now Isabella," he said, his voice sounding low and strained. I huffed, he always forgot how much I hated Isabella, and no matter how many times I insisted he call me Bella, he never listened.

"But Dad, it's important," I whined, sounding like the spoilt little brat I was.

"Isabella, I have much more important issues to deal with at this very moment than your teenage dilemmas. I'm sure that whatever you want to ask me, can wait," he said, trying to sound as calm as possible, but I could see that he was already beginning to lose his patience with me.

I frowned; he was always acting this way lately, on long phone calls, eating less, hair falling out, and all the signs that something or someone was troubling him. However, I really needed to go out and buy the necessary items, teenagers need, as I had recently discovered that I needed new bras as I had gone up a cup size, and my clothes size had yet again changed. Why can't you just stay the same size for your whole life? It would save me a lot of hassle going into the centre of Seattle, shopping. It would also save my Father the bother of arranging someone to escort me there as well. Whenever I left our land's perimeter – it had barbed wire and guards and everything- he always insisted that someone accompany me- usually Sam or Jared, as they knew how to take care of themselves- as it was still dangerous apparently. Personally, I thought that the Cullen's had given up and just merged in with the rest of the public, but from what I had heard was that my dad had received a tip off about something the Cullen's were up too. I put it off to another prank call, as people were always ringing up, claiming to have insiders information. But I knew they only did it as they would get rewarded with money if their information was found to be useful.

"If mum was here, she would listen to me," I said coldly. I knew it was a low blow, but I knew it was the only way to get him to listen and pay attention to me. I knew that he still loved my Mother dearly, and regretted every single second of the day that he shot her. But what was done in the past is in the past, so he shouldn't dwell on it any longer than he should have.

Charlie's head snapped up, and his eyes met mine, and they were full of grief, and his fists were now on the desk, and they were balled up and shaking, as though he was refraining himself from hitting something. I felt a sense of remorse when I saw his face, and I knew immediately that I should not have reminded him about Renee, but at least I had his full attention.

"What is it you want?" His tone was undeniably softer and kind, even if it was a little forced, and I smiled inwardly. If he was acting like that now, I should be allowed to go out.

"I need to go into the city."

However, Charlie's eyes hardened, and a wave of anger or some other emotion that I couldn't place, rolled over him and his fists clenched again. "What for this time." Yes, his tone had turned harsh again.

"Well I need a new bra and other girl things..." I trailed off as he put his hand up to halt me. It was funny how men reacted when you so as much mentioned anything to do with a woman's period.

"Isabella, you know I would rather that you not go at this moment in time," my Father said, worry plastering his voice now.

"But dad," I protested, "my bra is a size too small now, and you know that I am only one of the few girls around here, boys will be paying more attention to me, and if you want my breasts spilling out everywhere..." I trailed off again as I heard my Father groan with embarrassment.

"They wouldn't dare touch you," I heard him grumble before carrying on. "OK, OK, you can go, but I want you to take Sam with you."

I groaned. "Aw, Dad, come on. I am perfectly capable of going myself, I won't be long, and besides I am sure that Sam wouldn't want to be hanging around Victoria's secret with me."

"Isabella, Sam is going with you. No more arguments," he said sharply.

"But what if Jacob-" I began, but Charlie shook his head no.

"Jacob is no older than you. I know both Billy and I would feel better if Sam went. I know Billy fears of Jacob, just as I fear for you Isabella. You are both the youngest, and more likely to be targeted than the older ones who can fight, attack and defend themselves."

"Fine," I grumbled, and Charlie, reached other to press a button alerting Sam that he wanted him to come to his office.

----~~~~----

Half an hour later we were in a black car driving away from the five storey mansion that was our home. Sam was driving, and I was in the passenger seat, fiddling with the radio.

"Why did all the good stations have to be shut down?" I complained to no one in particular, as I pressed random buttons, willing to find a channel where they actually played decent music, not all of the sixties crap you usually hear.

"Because they either went bankrupt, or where found to be supporting the Cullen's," Sam said, answering my rhetorical question.

I rolled my eyes. "This thing is getting pretty pathetic now. We haven't heard from them in what, five years? What are the chances that they are just suddenly going to pop up, just because a few radio stations are known to be supporting them?"

Sam sighed, clearly frustrated. "Well, if they started broadcasting what the Cullen's are saying, people will listen to it and their support for us would have vanished. It is better for us if we just take precautions with everything, especially advertising."

"Hardly anyone is supporting us now," I said pointedly, looking out onto the streets of Seattle through the tinted car windows at the homeless who were littered every ten meters or so.

Sam didn't reply, instead he stared straight ahead as he weaved in and out through the little traffic. I huffed and crossing my arms, I stared out the windows, watching the various shops whizzing past. Most of them were bordered up, and For Sale signs were stuck up in most windows or if not, closing down sale signs were. And I thought everything was getting better as well... I guess that this conflict was probably at its worst a few years ago as new technology had recently emerged and various other weapons are more freely available now than they were one hundred years ago, and we were reliving the after mouth of it.

Sam pulled over to the pavement and stopped the car. We were parked outside of Abercrombie and Fitch, one of the few clothing lines that could actually afford to stay open. I exited the car – stepping carefully over the considerably large amounts of litter that filled the gutter- and entered the shop, Sam behind me, basically breathing down my neck and eyeing every single movement I made. After spending an hour and a half in the shop – of which most I was browsing – Sam began getting annoyed and complaining he wanted to get home- Sam and his brother's resided in my home, whilst his Father was on diplomatic trips around the world. At the moment he was in Japan- so I grabbed a few pairs of jeans, a few tops and a few hoodies, and headed for the changing rooms.

In the end I brought everything I tried on, and resolved to come back next week with Jared or Paul, who had the equal amount of patience as Sam did, but they hadn't been shopping with me before so they won't know what they had gotten themselves into.

Next we stopped off at Walgreen drug stores so that I could get my feminine possessions – at which Sam turned away embarrassed as I picked up a box of tampons. I resisted the urge, however, to wave it in his face and see his reaction. But I knew that he would become even more uncomfortable once we entered Victoria's secret.

Once we had finished our business there, we entered Victoria's secret, and Sam coughed, clearly bothered that he had to enter a shop like this with me. I decided to torture him a little, and so I spent my time racking through tops, humming as I did so, then I moved onto the lingerie, where I held up various bra's and put them against myself in the mirrors, whilst watching Sam who was looking almost mortified. To him, I was like his little sister, and I knew there was nothing worse than having to take your little sister underwear shopping.

To make his situation worse, I moved onto the sexy lingerie, you know the type you usually wear if you're planning on having sex. I put them up against myself, before shaking my head and muttering things like 'no, he wouldn't like that', before putting it back on the rack. After about the fifth time of doing this Sam finally grabbed it off me – I was currently holding a black corset, and shoved it back on the rack in the wrong place.

"Bella, whichever boy you are buying for, I swear that I will rip his head off if I find out who he is." Ah, so here comes the over protectiveness...

I grinned, "Aw, come on Sam, I was just playing with you. You know that I don't really have a boyfriend." And I walked back over and picked up a few bras' I had tried on earlier and handed them to Sam along with my purse. "Hey, can you go and pay for these please? I just want to look at something in the clothing section, and it would be quicker if I do it while you pay, 'cus I know you don't want to be in here any longer than you have too."

"Fine, but be quick about it," and Sam stalked off in the direction of the till, paying for my items.

When he was out of sight, I breathed a sigh of relief. Even though I loved Sam like a brother, I felt as though he was suffocating me, and the feeling was horrible.

Without even thinking much about it, I walked towards the exit, hoping for a breath of fresh air. However, when I was standing outside, it occurred to me that I had never properly explored Seattle for myself on my own, and I was morbidly curious as to what it was really like.

After glancing back to check that Sam was busy, I set off down the sidewalk clutching my Abercrombie bag as though it was my life. I looked around me, fascinated. This was my first glimpse of the real world that wasn't through a tinted car window, or on the computer or even the television. I wasn't going to lie and say it was beautiful- because it wasn't, but it held some of its own sense of wonder that captivated me.

However, as I wasn't looking where I was going, I soon got lost and somehow ended up in an alleyway. Thankfully though, there were no homeless people down here, as I had gotten tired and scared of passing them whilst they called out to me, begging for money or food. It was dark now, and glancing at my watch, I saw it was nine o'clock at night. I shivered, I must have been on my own for longer than I thought then. My Father was probably having a fit by now, and has the Police looking for me, whilst shouting at Sam for letting me out of his sight. I don't know why he was always so... I couldn't find a word that fits what he is like about me going out on my own, but I had gotten into no trouble at all, and besides, I was in the process of finding my way back home in a few minutes once I figured out how to get out of this jungle of alleyways.

I wrapped my jacket tighter around my body and hurried on passed the slimy brick walls, when suddenly I found myself standing outside of an old, derelict, building. Well, it looked derelict, but I could see the faint glimmer of a light in one of the rooms. There was another alley leading away from it, and I turned to go down it when two men turned the corner...

And they were armed.

They both held machine guns in their arms, and when they saw me, they all but ran in my direction before stopping in front of me.

I froze, terrified by these two men who were glaring at me, and I even saw one of their hands twitching towards the gun, as though he was contemplating on whether he should shoot me or not. My hands began shaking so hard that I thought I was going to drop my carrier bag, and I automatically took a step back, sensing that I didn't want to be around these guys.

"I-I'm sorry, I-I got lost," I stuttered, coming up with a reason as to why I was invading their territory.

"We don't like people intruding on us, do we Laurent?" One of them said, his blonde hair tied back in a low ponytail.

"No James, we don't, and neither does out boss. And what do we do to trespassers James?" The second one asked, he had raven black hair, and had an olive complexion.

"Why don't we let our little friend guess?" he said, leering down at me, whilst stroking his gun tenderly.

"No- I'm not trespassing, I was lost," I said, almost crying. I considered telling them who I was, but everything my Father taught me came rushing back to me, so I clamped my mouth shut. I couldn't tell if they were on my side or not. The latter seemed more likely, as it probably wasn't a Swan meeting, as my Father tended to choose more luxurious places to host them.

"But sweetie, we don't believe outsiders..." he began and took another step towards me, but I screamed, took a few more steps backwards and cut him off.

"Please, don't shoot me, I don't want to die. Look, I'll go away and never speak to anyone about you guys or even this place. Just please, let me go home." I almost got to my knees and tugged their clothes, whilst pleading for my life.

The blonde haired man- James, opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but another man entered the alley and their attention turned to him.

"What is all this commotion about?" This new comer had bronze hair that was sticking up all over the place, he had green eyes, but I couldn't see properly through this dim light, and like the others, he was holding a gun.

"We found her here a few minutes ago Edward. She _claims_ to be lost." Edward looked at me for a moment and turned back to James and Laurent.

"And why didn't you bring her in for interrogation?" Edward demanded. James and Laurent looked at each other, shifting their weight, as though they were nervous.

"Well- we were just..."

Edward exhaled sharply through his nose and turned back to me. "What's your name?" he asked demandingly.

"B-Bella," I whispered.

"And what is your business here?" he also badgered.

"I- This is my first time in Seattle alone, and I got lost on my way home..." I trailed off as his glare became too penetrating for my liking.

"See James, she is just lost."

"So we shouldn't shoot her then?" Laurent asked.

"No, just let her go. She is only a child after all," he said after looking me up and down, appraising me. "Now Bella, if I see you around here ever again, I will not hesitate to shoot you. Neither will James or Laurent. Now scram before I change my mind and don't you dare breathe a word to anyone or I will hunt you down myself and murder you," he hissed menacingly. I shivered as I realised that he meant his threat and would take it seriously if I told anybody.

I nodded and ran, wanting to get as far away from them and that place as possible. After ten minutes, I finally emerged onto the main road, where I collapsed on the concrete, crying my eyes outs.

"Bella! There you are!" I heard someone exclaim down the road from me, sounding immensely relieved. "Where have you been?" Jared said when he reached me, he sounded angry but also worried.

I shook my head, going into hysterics. Jared wrapped his arms around my waist, lifted me up and pulled me into a hug, my tears staining on his T-shirt. He muttered soothing words to me whilst calling someone, telling them that he had found me. Minutes later a car pulled up and we got in it taking us home.

After the hugs and the 'Bella, I am so glad you are safe's!" were over; my Father and Sam began shouting at me simultaneously, but I never answered their questions on where I was and what I had seen. I found the words hard to say. But I knew that I shouldn't have taken the threats seriously because I was a Swan and highly protected here, but I did, because I knew exactly what I had run into.

I had nearly run into a Cullen meeting, and I had never been so scared in my life.

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**Bella is quite a cheeky 15 year old, isn't she? But don't worry she doesn't stay 15 forever, just for now. And if you are a bit kinda weird on the age difference between her and Edward, it isn't that bad when you think about it. **

**Okay, so I dont know where American teenagers get their girl stuff from mine, because I don't live in america and I get mine from boots, but I don't know if they have that over there? So anyway, had to google drugstores and just hope for the best, so sorry if no one goes to walgreens :P**

**And if you're wondering why James and Laurent are a little scared of Edward because they are older than him. It is because Edward is Carlisle's son (who is the leader of the Cullen's) and has higher authority over them.**

**If you have any questions just ask me :)**

**x**


	3. Secretive

**AN:**Thanks for all of the reviews last chapter guys! I really appreciate them all and I reply to every one of them... well unless you are an anonymous reviewer.

_

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__All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."_

_- Arthur Schopenhauer _

Bella's POV:

Yeah...I was grounded.

I was under 'lockdown' -whatever that was and however it applied to my life.

In Hollywood, lockdown usually happens in prison movies, where the inmates would get put on lockdown for some riot or other shit like that. That didn't even come close to what my dad's version is - I think that my father just liked to feel like he had some sort of control over me for once. But anyway, my father's version of 'grounded' was just being in lockdown within my room for two weeks. I think he might have overlooked the fact that I had a plasma screen TV complete with a DVD player, an IPod, a mini bar, en-suite bathroom... Hell, I don't even need to leave my room in the first place what with all I have within it. There was just no point.

I think that Sam might have tried to point it out to my dad at one point, but he must have just waved it off because no action had been taken about it.

Sam had gotten the worse end of the stick over all of this. I had received an hour long lecture and was shouted at until my father's voice had grown hoarse, but Sam on the other hand had received a demotion and was now not allowed to be trusted with the high ranked information. His father was now not talking to him, as was mine and even his brother's were giving him the cold shoulder. I thought that this was all a little harsh and was blown way out of proportion, but Jared or Paul or one of the others would just say '_you could've gotten seriously hurt Bells,_' and then would walk away.

Of course, if they all knew what I had really seen, Sam probably would have been in even more trouble and I would have been interrogated and forced to show where I had witnessed it all. I was positive that they were actual Cullen's, so I took their threat seriously and kept my mouth clamped shut. I had seen and heard enough of what they had done in the past to be fully aware that they are capable of their coercion and would follow it through to seek out the informer.

If the words weren't enough to enforce my silence; then the nightmares certainly were. Almost every night now my dreams would start of seemingly harmless, just the ordinary weird dreams my imagination would come up with, but somehow they would find a way to turn against me and it would always end up with three or more people pursuing me – sometimes it was so terrifying and confusing, that it was hard to tell exact numbers- and I would be running with all the speed and strength that I could possibly muster in my condition. The adrenaline pumping through my veins, forcing my blood faster and faster around my body, helped me stay on my feet and keep my brain functioning properly, not collapsing in total disaster. I could hear my family calling out my name, their voices surrounding me, but there was no one there to help. They always seemed just out of reach. I mean they would sound as though they were running alongside me, but when I looked, I was surrounded by nothing.

In the end, just as I thought I was managing to evade them, I would turn a corner and a whole line of men would be stationed in front of me, blocking my escape. Upon turning around, I would find that it was no use; they were placed there as well- surrounding me, closing in, until I felt that I was going to die; either from their guns or from claustrophobia. Usually then I would fall to the ground, sobbing and screaming to them that I would keep my word and I would forget about them. But they never stopped coming. Someone would wrap their arms around me and pull me up into a standing position and embracing me in a hug. At this point I usually thought it was one of my cousins, but when I looked up I was met with piercing green eyes and a mop of messy bronze hair.

Edward would be staring at me maliciously, sneering as I figured out who he was. I tried to escape from his grip, but he would pull me closer before whispering in my ear: '_You will never escape alive, little one_,' before pulling his gun out and pressing it against my temple. I shut my eyes and then...

I would wake up screaming and crying, my heart thumping erratically in my chest as I told myself that it was only a dream, nothing more, just a figment of my imagination.

But, have you ever had the feeling that even though you are trying to convince yourself otherwise, you cannot get it out of your head that it might someday become reality and that your dream was really a premonition?

So yes, those were the causes of the dark circles under my eyes, making my face look even more hollow and gaunt and my skin was now even paler and sicklier, and sometimes whenever I looked in the mirror, I thought that my face looked like a ghost. But I refused to let trivial things like that get me down. My appearance was already ugly and plain as it was; what did a few more details really matter? Besides, it wasn't as if I was going to be allowed outside of the grounds for a while at the least and my family had seen me through worse stages, so there was no use keeping up an appearance for people who didn't particularly care what I look like.

Groaning, I flung myself onto my bed, landing on my back with my arms spread out. Despite the many luxuries in my room, they still couldn't make up for my boredom that was increasing with every single fucking second. I had considered sneaking out of my room and going for a wander, maybe do a little spying in the process, but if I got caught doing that, I would be in even more trouble than at the present. Thus, I decided against it.

I rolled off of my bed and onto my floor, landing on the plush carpet with a soft thump and crawled over to my bookshelf to see what my books had to offer. I eyed them all with little interest and none of them grabbed my attention. _Next time I'm in Seattle, remember to buy some more books, _I made a mental note to myself, knowing full well that if I didn't happen to pass a bookstore I would most likely forget that I even wanted some. Well, that was if I was even allowed out again.

After minutes of lying on my back, staring at the plain cream ceiling, I eventually heaved myself off of the floor, looking around my room in hopes that something would jump out of my vision and actually immerse me in said activity for at least a few hours- passing any length of time suited me.

However, like always, I couldn't seem to find a single thing to do, so in the end I opted to take another shower, even though I had taken one earlier this morning which was almost eight hours ago. I stepped into my bathroom and turned on the light switch, flooding the room with fluorescent light. I stripped down and prepared to step into the shower, when at the last minute, I decided a bath was what I really desired instead of a shower.

Putting the plug in the bathtub, I then turned on the taps adding in some perfumed bubble bath to help me relax. However, when the bath didn't fill completely after less than a minute, I got impatient and climbed into the hot water, whilst the taps were still running. At first the water scolded my skin, but then my body adjusted to the temperature change and I was able to sink in, letting my body soak in the water, relaxing all of my tense muscles whilst at the same time washing away any little dirt that I had obtained during the course of the day.

I reached over to the wall and turned on the built in radio so that I could listen to something while I washed myself. It took me a few minutes to find a station that played some decent music which was very rare these days and I made another mental note to ask my dad to stop shutting down all the good ones... Or maybe I should just start plugging in my IPod instead, then I won't have to be so picky about the music that was being played and I could make a playlist... That reminds me, I need to find some more music as my current collection was beginning to get old and I could even save money by illegally downloading them, but if I get caught my father would have a field day... Yeah, what are they chances of that though? Thousands of teenagers get their music dishonestly, what are the odds that I out of thousands would get caught...?

My thoughts became muddled and fuzzy as I fell into a light slumber and like many times nightmarish images flashed before my eyes behind my closed lids. However they weren't as vivid as they can get, which was a plus, but it was enough to make my heart thud with terror.

_They were getting closer and closer. Every single millisecond brought them closer to me. No matter how hard I tried, I knew that I could not out run them for much longer. It took enough effort to lift my feet up and put one in front of the other, as every time I tried to walk, it felt as though my feet were wading through knee high, sticky mud. _

_There were within arm length by now and I almost just gave up and fell into them, but a little voice in my head was telling me to keep going... keep going... keep going... Wake up Bella... Wake up... BELLA! WAKE UP!_

My eyes snapped open in shock.

I was still in the bathtub, though the water had long run cold by now. The foam had disappeared and the clock on the wall read that I had been asleep for two hours which I was pretty surprised to find that I hadn't actually drowned myself in that space of time. The radio was still playing, but they had gotten onto the oldies now that it was past six.

I shivered, if I didn't get out of here soon, the cold water would get to me and I wasn't in the mood for dealing with the flu or a cold, so I washed my hair as quickly as possible and then after, relishing in the warmth that my white fluffy robe provided.

I padded out of my bathroom and dried off as fast as I could. This was one of the downsides of having a bath; the air always feels cold when you get back out of it. I was about to put my former clothes on when I decided against it. I mean what was the point? I know that it is still early only quarter past six, but I wasn't going to be going anywhere apart from my room. So, in the end I dressed in a blue cami with flannel trousers that were the comfiest pyjama set that I owned.

Glancing at the clock, I became agitated again. The bath had taken a large fraction of my time up, but there was still more of it left to pass. I sat on my sofa and pulled my knees up towards my chest reminiscing about what I could be doing right now if I hadn't abandoned Sam in Victoria's Secret. Right now I could be with Jake playing video games, or eavesdropping again on my father's conversations, or planning ways to piss Sam off again – even though I do love him as a brother, it is hilarious to watch when Sam was pissed off with something, but he couldn't find the culprit; it was one of my favourite pastimes.

Resting my head on my knees, I sighed. _I had yet another two weeks of this to endure,_I reminded myself. My wet hair tickled my face and it smelt strongly of my herbal essence shampoo that I had just used to wash it with –flavour or scent being that of rose bud and ylang ylang, which was the type I had recently taken to use. Absentmindedly, I began playing with the wet strands of my hair, making little plaits with them and wondering how long it would take to dry...

Dry! That was it! Blow drying my hair would waste another few minutes of my time wouldn't it? And with that idea set in my mind, I walked over to my wardrobe and brought out my hairdryer, plugging it in before switching it on. I brushed my hair while I was drying; ensuring that it would dry straight not frizzy like it tends to do on occasion.

Once again when I was done, I was faced with the awful dilemma: what should I do now? After minutes of deliberation on various activities around the room, I ended up deciding on the television. Who knows, hopefully there would be a decent program on at this time by now? I stalked over to the TV and turned it on, only for a news broadcast to be flashed on the screen in front of my eyes.

It was a typical news headline, some sort of disaster happening someplace in the world and I reached for the remote to turn over when a word caught my attention –Volturi.

"_I am standing on the outskirts of Kazan where it is said that the Volturi..."_ I zoned out of the news report then.

My father had mentioned the word Volturi quite a lot in his recent phone calls and whenever I googled it on the computer, all of the websites about it and mentioned that word were blocked which meant that my father didn't want me to see something. Before, I had just assumed that it was some sort of code word, but I knew different now; it was an organisation. Somehow that made more sense when I thought about it. But I was curious as to whom they actually were and what they were doing and as the broadcast didn't reveal much more, I decided to do what I do best: eavesdrop.

Swiftly, I changed into some more practical clothing and left off my shoes, wanting my footsteps to be silent –I didn't particularly want to get caught. So after turning the television off, I opened my door a crack and peered around it, sticking my head out into the hallway, checking to see if the coast was clear. When I was happy enough that it was, I opened the door wide enough so that I could pass through. However, I winced when the door creaked – why does everything seem so much louder when you are trying to do something that you shouldn't be? It was like every sound I made was intensified by one hundred and ten percent. I rushed into the hallway and closed the door fast, trying not to prolong the creak, but then the door made an impossibly loud click when it fastened in place within the door frame.

Creeping down the hall, I kept my eyes and ears alert, ready to dive into the nearest room if it was necessary. But I met no obstacles on my way downstairs – in fact, I didn't meet anyone at all, which was strange considering that a large number of people resided here or was on some sort of business.

However, when I was halfway down the staircase, I heard voices coming along the corridor from behind me and praying that they hadn't seen me; I ran down the stairs and hid in a storage cupboard. It was dark and horrible in here and I didn't want to risk turning on a light just in case they saw the light spilling from the gap under the door.

The footsteps halted outside of the door and I held my breath, willing them to move on.

"I wonder where Bella is?" One of them asked, his voice I recognised as Quil's.

"Yeah, so do I. I went into her room about a minute ago, but it was empty," Embry replied.

"Well her father is going to be very pissed off when he finds that Bella has left her room." The door opened, flooding my hideout with light. "Isn't he Bella?"

Groaning, I stepped out of the small space into the hallway where Quil and Embry were standing, both of them laughing. "Ok, how did you know I was there?" I demanded, sulking a little from being caught so easily and fast.

"Bella, you simply aren't fast enough. We saw you when you were on the stairs and we saw you run in and hide," Embry said, adding on a laugh at the end.

"Fine, I'll go back to my room, just don't tell Charlie, OK?" I said sullenly, preparing to trek back to my room only to sneak back downstairs when the time was right again.

They both laughed. "Your dad wanted to see you anyway, that's why we came to your room," Quil said.

"Oh," I said, my interest sparked up a little. Maybe he had decided that since my behaviour has been pretty good, I could get let out early. "Is he in his office?"

They both shook their heads – it must be a twin thing, doing stuff at the same time. "No, he is in the sitting room with Sam and the others." So with Quil and Embry trailing after me, I walked towards the room where it seems like everyone was situated and as I got close enough, I could hear that the TV was turned on and tuned into the same station that I had been watching minutes before.

"You wanted to see me?" I asked, entering the room. Nobody looked up at my entrance and instead I was met with a bunch of 'Shushes'. "You guys make the best welcoming committee," I said sarcastically, sitting down on the sofa next to Paul.

No one replied, they just focused all of their attention on the TV screen. "So, what did you want dad?" I persisted. But my father just shook his head and pressed a finger towards his lips, signalling that he wanted me to be quiet so that he could listen. Rolling my eyes dramatically, I sighed. Even though I had company here, watching the news was almost as bad as lying in my room doing nothing. Ok, maybe not, this _was_ an improvement, but still, I was hoping for a bit of a more exciting experience than just _watching the news_.

In return, I switched my own attention to the TV, wondering what was so fascinating about it, when I saw that they were still broadcasting on the story that I had been watching and was also the reason I had snuck out of my room.

"_The Volturi have barricaded themselves within the city and it is unknown as to what they are planning next. It seems as though the Swan's and Cullen's are in for some heavy competition now..."_

"Dad, who are the Volturi? They were on the news upstairs aswe-"

However, my father cut me off before I could finish my sentence and answer more questions. "No, not now Bella, go back to your room like I told you too," he said sharply, turning off the TV.

"But dad you-" I started, but he cut me off again.

"Bella, just do as I say," he replied slowly, trying to keep his temper. I grumbled incoherently to myself and left the room.

I wasn't stupid, I knew exactly why my father ordered me to leave the room; he was going to discuss the news with my cousins and because I was the youngest and a girl, I get left out of it, yet again. Jacob was only a year older than me and he still got to listen in, but my father was adamant that I remain in the dark.

I walked down the corridor, talking to myself about how unfair it was – letting them know that I was indeed going back to my room, but when I was far away enough that they couldn't hear me anymore, I crept back towards the room, listening in whilst remaining unnoticed. When I reached the door that was standing ajar -which I had purposely left it so –I stood behind the door, so that I could hear every word that was said, yet not getting caught for it.

"Charlie, we need to eliminate the Volturi before it becomes too late. We ignored their earlier threats and look what they have done; invaded a major Russian city and taken over it, we cannot let this go any further than that," Jared said, sounding very eager to begin some action.

"No, I don't want to risk losing anybody at this time. You know that the Cullen's have been sending me cryptic messages about their return. I have no idea when and where they are planning to expose that and I would rather be prepared for them over here, than send an army over to Russia only to find out that we are in more need of it," Charlie replied.

"The Cullen's haven't been active for a while. What are the odds that they are just suddenly going to spring up when we are the most vulnerable?" Jacob said. Even I found fault with his question. Striking when weak and more exposed made more sense than attacking when the defences are up and alert.

However, everyone seemed to think that Jacob's question was also stupid as no one answered and I could almost see Jacob's sulking face which made me smile slightly.

"How do we know that the Volturi aren't working with the Cullen's? It makes sense, we attack one and the other comes from behind and attacks us back. It is the perfect ploy to exterminate us and when perfectly planned to the last detail, would work." Now it was Sam's turn to talk. I reckon that he was probably trying worm his way back into my dad's good books again.

"We don't. I just hope that they aren't as we may as well just say goodbye to this all." My dad paused for a minute. "Bella doesn't know anything, does she?"

There was a round of murmurs of 'not that I know of' or 'I don't think so'. I noticed that Jacob didn't say anything.

"Just make sure she doesn't find out about anything will you? I know how attached she was to her mother when she was younger, and heavens she does a good job of covering up her loss, but if she knew the real truth, I know that she will go out and seek them for herself."

This change of the conversation startled me. What was he going on about now? I had never heard anything like this before and I was curious as to what it was.

Intrigued, I leant towards the door a bit more, so that I could heard the voices more clearly and ensuring that I didn't miss a single piece of information.

"Why don't you just tell her Charlie? She has a right now know and I am sure that everything you have taught her so far will make her stay away from them, there is no harm. Besides, it isn't even that important, I don't think that it would affect her very much," Sam said nonchalantly.

My dad muttered, "If you only knew the whole story..." And he trailed off before he said anything else about it.

There was silence again; the only sounds were the breathing of all of the men in the room next door and the crackling of the fire. Well, that was until Sam spoke up again. "Do you think that Bella is the girl whom Ishara referred to, two thousand years ago?"

"What was that?" my father asked absentmindedly as though he was being brought out of some deep thinking.

"You know the prophecy Ishara made two thousand years ago? Do you think Bella is that girl?" Sam asked again.

"No," my father said sharply, "it is impossible Sam. Besides, I don't believe in those subjects anyway, I have no faith in them whatsoever and it was predicted by some crazy hippy years ago who doesn't know what she is going on about."

"But the one of the lines refer to-"

Jacob cut Sam off before he could get very far. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm exhausted, I'm off to bed."

"Night Jake," Paul said.

"I'm coming as well," Embry and Quil said at the same time. And I heard the footsteps coming towards the door. I gasped and ran towards the stairs and sprinted up it. I knew that Jacob had suddenly changed the topic because he knew that I was eavesdropping. But what bugged me was that they all knew something very important that I didn't. And the worse thing was that it was about me.

Who was this Ishara? And what was this prophecy about? And who would I be seeking out? None of this made any sense at all. There were so many unanswered questions in that conversation and I doubted that I was going to find out about them soon. Maybe Google will come up with some answers...

I entered my room, my head tumbling and turning with all of these words and mysteries and as I stepped inside it, my widow smashed and an object came flying through it towards me.

I screamed and prepared to run out my room, but the brick dropped to the floor and came to a halt at my feet. I reached down to pick it up, just as a second brick shattered a second window pane and again it landed at my feet, though I did have to jump backwards to avoid being hit with it.

The second brick had a piece of paper wrapped around it, an elastic band holding it in its place. I ripped the note away and unfolded it.

Scribbled hastily in pen was a message: _You have been warned Swan. The cold ones are rising..._

I didn't get to read the rest of it as a third brick came through the window, but this time it collided with my head.

Pain exploded throughout my face and head, making me cry out in pain. I lifted my hand to the spot where I had been hit and upon pulling it away I saw that it was covered in my own red blood.

My vision became hazy and blurred and I could feel the nausea creeping up my throat.

I struggled to stay awake, but the pain was increasing and somehow it was trickling throughout my body, making it seem much worse and intensified that it should have been. In the end I couldn't fight it off any longer and so I fell into the dark abyss that awaited me, ignoring the cries of my name.

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**AN: **Did you like it? Hate it? Just review and tell me what you thought about it! Next chapter we get to see inside the head of Edward ;) Which I am really looking forward to writing. And honestly if it wasn't for the word counts I have been doing with bittenandsmitten and also faerie_kitten and other various people, I probably wouldn't have written this chapter for absolutely ages.

Review! :D


	4. Missed opportunities

**AN:**Thank you so much for all of the reviews and story alerts... :) They mean a lot to me. Here is the next chapter, and we get to go inside of Edward's head.

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__"I'm afraid to believe that there is hope somewhere in my black heart for the darkness to be shown the light."  
-Jedidiah Knight,_

**Edward's POV**:

I couldn't get the girl out of my head –her face was constantly haunting my mind, swarming around in my brain.

Fucking hell it was annoying. I absolutely loathed that feeling when you vaguely recognise someone's face but you can never put a name to it. It pissed me off to the point of no return and I knew that I wouldn't be peaceful until I knew who she was.

Ever since that evening, two nights ago, that girl had been bugging the shit out of me –I was positive that I had never met her in person before, but I was sure that I had seen a photo of her somewhere or maybe she was some actress on TV...

No, it was just some kind of weird coincidence. I've lived in Miami my whole life up until a few weeks ago, and even then I hadn't seen or met any new woman, she probably just looked like someone I already knew. Yeah, that was it, I tried to convince myself so I could let the matter go. I didn't want to seem like some fucking pervert, she was still a child for Christ sakes I shouldn't keep thinking about her or my mind will turn into one of those sick ones, though it wasn't like I was having indecent thoughts about her.

I sighed and reached into my jacket and pulled out a cigarette and a lighter and upon lighting it, I put it in my mouth, relaxing slightly as I did so.

Why was my life so fucking difficult? Every time I went outside I had to carefully disguise myself or use fake ID so that I would not get caught by the police. I would do anything to be a normal person with no worries about being murdered or put on the electric chair –they all had it so easy. But would I settle for that kind of life though? I had spent my whole life like this –nineteen years of it to be exact –and yet would I miss the thrill of running away or the time or the adrenaline pumping through my veins when I took someone out with my gun? Would it even be possible to settle into a comfy life after all I had experienced.

I closed my eyes and leant against the balcony that I was standing on outside of our apartment in Seattle, letting the cool night air wash over me, and for a moment I felt as though all of my worries had gone, the wind blowing them away. Gently, I opened my eyes and looked into the heavens. As usual you couldn't see the stars, due to it being overcast, but the light pollution emitting from the city would also cause a problem.

I took another drag of my cigarette and ran a hand through my hair.

Yet again that girl's fucking face drifted across my mind. Would she just ever go away and let me be? Probably not, but I was determined to find out who she was, so that she wouldn't piss me off anymore.

"You know you should stop smoking those," said a quiet voice from behind me.

I turned around and my younger sister Alice was dithering in the doorway, an uncertain look on her face as though she was worrying about something. Well, that, or wondering if I was still in a temper like I had been in an hour ago and had come out here for some fresh air.

"What do you want Alice?" I snapped. She winced and took a step back as though I had just slapped her across her face. I sighed again –I hadn't meant to be so harsh with her, it's just that nowadays I found it hard to control myself. "I'm sorry Alice... things have just been..." I searched around wildly for a word, but I couldn't seem to come up with one.

"It's OK," she whispered. Then she wrinkled her nose a little in disgust. "James and Laurent are here."

A seep of annoyance crept through me. "What are they doing here? I told them not to come here; people will begin getting suspicious if they enter in and out of her all of the time. Are they trying to get us noticed?! And besides they have their own residence only a few minutes away; if they wanted to speak to any of us, there is something called a phone..." As I was ranting to myself, Alice came and wrapped her arms around my waist and buried her head in my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and held her closer, it only took me a few seconds to realise that she was crying. "What's wrong?" I asked hesitantly, rubbing her back a little bit –I wasn't particularly good with the whole emotion concept.

"Jazz hasn't come back," she mumbled into my shirt. Immediately I froze –she knew that I didn't approve of their relationship.

Alice was four years younger than me –which meant that she was only fifteen. However, Jasper was a year older than me which made a five year age difference between them. Jasper was a nice guy and all, but I know that men of our age only wanted one thing –sex, and I didn't want my little sister to get hurt over it.

"He'll be fine. He is with Emmett and Rosalie; you have nothing to worry about." Emmett was my older brother by three years and Rosalie Hale was his girlfriend, who was probably one of the best drivers we have ever had in this business. Emmett was renowned for his stealth, knack for escaping and ruthlessness. Jasper, well; he was the ones who came up with the missions. The Hale's and the Whitlock's have been good friends of the family for fuck knows how many years.

"But what if something went wrong and they get caught and then chucked in jail or even worse kill and then we won't be able to see any of them ever again-" I cut her off.

"Alice. Look, no one is going to get arrested or killed, whatever you may think. They are all trained better than that. There is absolutely nothing to be worrying about at the moment." Carefully, I unwrapped her arms from around my waist and pulled her away from me so that she was standing at arm's length. However, she still didn't look convinced and tears were still streaming down her face, making her eyes puffy and red, and don't forget to mention her face which was bright red. "How about this Alice, if they don't come back in an hour, I will go out looking for them and if I can't find them, I will buy you whatever you want, no price limits?" She looked up at me, tears glistening on her eyelashes and a little glimpse of hope stirred in her eyes.

"You would really go out and look for them?" she asked, disbelief etched into her voice.

I frowned. "What, do you not trust me or something Alice?"

"No, it's just that I know you don't approve of Jasper and all..." She trailed off, knowing that her words would most likely begin an argument between us two again.

"Don't forget that our brother is there as well." I reminded her. She muttered something under her breath which I couldn't quite catch and then I carried on. "Alice, I'm not that heartless. Jasper is my friend as well; I would do anything for him... and also to see my little sister happy again." I smiled at her and she cracked a watery one back. I turned back around and leant against the balcony fence again; a few seconds later, Alice joined me.

"Do you think that all of this will ever end?" She asked with a wave of her arm around the city beneath us.

I watched as police cars raced down the roads, their sirens blaring throughout the stillness of the night, disturbing it and the outlines of people running out of the way, trying to find cover. I sighed. "No. The world has been like this for years. Even if it does all change, it most certainly won't happen in our lifetime."

"Do you not have any hope at all Edward?"

Turning to look at her, I laughed. "What hope Alice? We probably will all die by the age of thirty; the Swan's are beginning to close in on us, we don't have much time left. Why should I hope for something that won't come true?"

"Don't say that," Alice whispered, sounding agonized.

"Why shouldn't I? It'll happen soon anyway. I just hope it's not a painful death and besides, what do I have to live for besides my family? Not that you will all miss me anyway because you have all found your partners."

"Edward!" Alice snapped. "Stop speaking like that. You're turning all emo on me again. You still have time to meet someone Edward, you're still young!"

"Alice, come on, let's be serious; who the fuck would want to be with me? I'm messed up in the head, not to mention the fact that I first killed someone at the age of eleven. It's just not right." And I turned on my heels and stalked back into our penthouse apartment.

"Edward, wait!" Alice called after me, but I ignored her and made my way to the sitting room where I could hear voices echoing down the hallway.

However, as I was halfway down the hall, the apartment door opened and three people poured through it. Before I had a chance to greet them Alice rushed passed me, pushing me out of the way. "Jasper!" she squealed, jumping into his outstretched arms.

I mashed my mouth together, fighting the urge to make a comment and turned to Emmett and Rosalie. "How did it go?" I asked conversationally as we all made our way to the kitchen.

"Excellent!" Emmett boomed, opening the fridge and pulling out a can of beer. "No problems at all, managed to get three bricks through the window before the alarm was raised and even then I was in the car. Rosalie was great, sped down the roads and we managed to dump the car before we heard the sirens." Emmett put down his beer on one of the kitchen surfaces and kissed Rosalie.

"Did no one see you?" I persisted, eager to know every last detail.

"Nope," Emmett said, popping the p. "They really need to tighten their security. It was as easy as pie cutting through that fence and the dogs were even asleep." Emmett laughed. "I can't wait until the next ambush." Emmett paused for a moment. "You should have come, it was so much fun. Maybe you can come next time?" he offered.

"You know dad won't let me," I snarled. "I'm still in big trouble after the incident, remember?"

"Yeah, you shouldn't have killed that boy," Rosalie interceded and snapped. "What did he even do wrong? It was just sixteen for fucks age, just a few months older than Alice!"

"You know that he was beginning to suspect something. What else could I have done?"

"Like Carlisle said, just be more careful around other people. You know they are still in mourning downstairs and trying to catch the killer."

"Rosalie," I snapped. "Just shut up alright! I'm not going to apologise or anything if that is what you want me to do, because I don't do that. Just leave it." And knocking Emmet's can onto the floor, I left the kitchen in an even darker mood than I was currently in before. I thought about ignoring Laurent and James and try to get some sleep for once, but as I was heading to my room, I heard Jasper and Alice giggling in her room next to mine, and I sure didn't want to put up with their crap tonight. Thus, I decided to go deal with James and Laurent.

As I got closer to the living area, I heard them bickering over something that was on the television. From here I could only pick out bits and pieces of it, but from this few words I could tell that it was not good. When I entered the room, the TV was turned on and they were both sprawled across the two sofa's leaving me no choice but to stand up.

"What are you two guys arguing about now?" I asked exasperatingly, I swear that was all they seemed to do is argue.

"Um, Edward, you might want to see this," James said, pointing at the TV screen.

There was a young woman standing on the screen, rain splattering on her hair and slightly blurring the camera lenses. It was dark which signalled that it was live and behind her there were police cars zooming by.

"_Roughly two hours ago at nine o clock, three bricks were allegedly thrown through a window in the Swan's residence. The culprits are currently unknown, but inside sources state that there were most likely Cullen's involved with it. However, this brutal attack has left Isabella Swan, aged fifteen years, in need of several stitches on her face as she took a blow to the head from one of these bricks. None of the Swan's seems to be available to make a statement, but we do have an expert on terrorist attacks. This is Mark Fona, from the department of..."_

"Fuck," I whispered, horrified. A few seconds ago, behind the news reporter there was a picture of a young girl, in her teens, with brown hair and wide brown eyes. The very same girl, who me, James and Laurent had met near one of our meetings two nights ago. The girl who I had mistaken just for an average citizen. Also the very same girl who had looked terrified as we spoke to her and looking as though she was about to piss her pants.

That girl's name was Isabella _Swan_.

That was why I recognised her. I had seen her so many times in newspapers and yet the first time I actually get to meet her in person, I didn't recognise her and let her go, right out of our clutches. All of the opportunities we could have had if only I took the necessary precautions with everyone else who was within an one hundred meter radius of our meetings and taken her in for interrogation. But no, just because she looked innocent enough, I decided to be nice and let her go home.

_Fuck, fuck, fuck_.

"Why did you not tell me it was her?" I demanded to James.

He shifted in his seat. "How was supposed to know? You were the one who didn't want us to bring her in or shoot her."

I clenched my fists, repressing the urge to punch James in the face for being so disrespectable. Slowly, I said, "I want both of you to watch that house perimeter. If she leaves it I want you to follow her and call me immediately. Understand?" No way in hell was I going to miss a perfect chance like this again.

"But how will we...?" Laurent trailed off as he saw my glare.

"Just do it," I snapped. "Or you will find yourself at the bottom of the river."

I was going to prove to my father that I could make good decisions and this was the best way to show it.

Isabella Swan, you are going to be in for one heck of a ride.

----~~~~----

_**Five days later...**_

_News Flash_

_Over the last few days, The Volturi have proceeded throughout Russia and have taken five more cities including Moscow and St Petersburg. Current death toll stands at 486. Their next move is still unknown and it is proving impossible to get near one of them without any gunfire._

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**AN:**So, did you like it? I struggled with this chapter. It isn't going to be one of my favourites throughout the story, but it had to be done to set up for the end of the next chapter. Sorry this isn't as long either, there was only so much I could put in at the moment and I didn't reveal a lot about Edward's home life, but all will be said in a few chapters time.

**Review! It only takes like a second. (:**


	5. Taken

**A/N:** Thank you so much for all of the reviews! They mean so much to me! I have bumped this story back up to M for violence and possible later chapters... There will be no rape in this story btw. :)

And so the anon reviewer 'h': Yes Bella will get older. She stays 15 for a very small portion of the story :)

Enjoy!_

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__The abduction of a child is a tragedy. No one can fully understand or appreciate what a parent goes through at such a time, unless they have faced a similar tragedy. Every parent responds differently. Each parent copes with this nightmare in the best way he or she knows how.__  
__-__John Walsh_

Bella's POV:

Only a few hours after the incident, I was released out of hospital with several stitches to my forehead and with a grade three concussion – that means that I had lost consciousness for more than five minutes, I was out for twenty. My father or somebody else was instructed to wake me up every four hours to ensure that I was okay. Of course, unlike the doctor had assumed, my father wasn't the one to take care of me, Sam was in the end. I was positive that he acted more like a father figure in my life than my own dad even did. He even acted more worried than my dad. And when I woke up in the hospital bed, he was the one sitting there, holding my hand and assuring me that I was fine and I only received a few stitches. Apparently, during all of this, my father was sat in his office on a phone call to Billy.

Thanks dad, it's really nice to know that you carry my best interests at heart.

I never got to read the rest of the note that was wrapped around the brick. Just as I was about to fall unconscious, Charlie tore it out of my hand and refused to let me read anymore of it. I pestered everyone else about it and I was sure that I was getting on their nerves, which was exactly what I wanted, but they refused to release a single clue about it.

Sometimes being me sucks.

So that left me here now, a week later, pissed off and not in the mood for facing or talking to anyone. At the moment I was sitting on a small patch of grass, secluded from the rest of society in the middle of a clump of bushes near the wire fence that surrounded our grounds. It was virtually impossible to find unless you knew its hidden location, which few did because you had to crawl through the brambles and twigs to get here in the first place. I had been coming here ever since my mother died to think and over the years a small mud trail had eroded away the grass from where my knees had been dragging along the grass.

I brought my legs up and rested my chin on my knees, wrapping my arms around my calves in the process. I wish I had brought a book with me or maybe my laptop if the wireless would range that far out of here. But I didn't want to trudge back into the house again and come back. I was reasonably happy and content here, but it still wasn't enough to quench my boredom. Absentmindedly, I picked up a small twig and began tracing random patterns with it in the dirt.

I was very curious as to what the rest of that note said. If only I didn't faint at the sight and smell of blood I would've been able to know the whole contents of that note. And besides, I was the one who was injured with it, shouldn't that enable me some sort of right to know why?

My fist clenched around the twig and I snapped it cleanly in half, before looking at it for a moment and then tossing it somewhere into the leaves trying to vent some of my anger. I stared at the spot where I think it had roughly landed for a minute, before grabbing my necklace and yanking it off. I held it in the palm of my hand and traced the contours that was etched onto the swan and then gently prodded the emerald that was placed where the eye should have been.

My mother had given me this necklace on the day I was born and I think that I have worn it practically my whole entire life – apart from taking it off when I had a shower or a bath. I didn't want the silver to rust or the emerald to fall out. I closed my fist around it at the thought of my mother, fisting it so hard that the sharp edges began to cut into my hand and when the dull pain became very annoying, I pulled my hand back and like I did with the stick, I flung it into the bushes.

My fucking mother. Why did nearly everything I think about have to somehow relate back to her in one way or another? It was like she practically donned my life even though she has been buried and dead for the last eight years. I mean what the hell is up with that? Was she watching over me from heaven or wherever she ended up and whenever I was in danger of forgetting her she pushed herself back into my thoughts? She was a fucking traitor. That was what she was and that was how I will always see her now for the rest of my life. She was defending the Cullen's and talking about what good people they really were deep down. I mean saying that in public and in front of my father was just asking for a death sentence, which is what she ended up getting in the end. As far as I was concerned it deserved her right, family always comes first. And I will never forgive her for just leaving me alone with only just men in my life.

I groaned as tears spilled out of my eyes and onto my cheeks and furiously, I tried to brush them away, but they just kept coming and then soon enough I was full out sobbing. _How could you leave me mum? How could you when I need you the most? I have spent my early teen years already without a mother figure in my life; I just need someone warm and caring to talk to. Dad isn't enough, he gets very embarrassed if I so much as mention the word period in front of him and Sam and the others are barely better. Why couldn't you think of your own daughter before your opinions?!_

For the next ten minutes or so I concentrated on concealing my seemingly never ending cries from any passers-by. I despised it when people saw me like this – all vulnerable and emotional, shit like that which I tended to hide from my family. If my father really knew how torn up about mum, I knew that he would loathe himself even more than he only did. Serves him right I guess when it came down to it. What kind of man shoots the one person they love most dearly apart from their own child?

I think that I might have an emotional personality disorder. One minute I hated my mother for being a traitor and then the next I was crying for her and blaming everything shitty in my life on my dad. Was there a name for it? Maybe I should Google it later...

When my tears had subsided enough for me to think coherently, I crawled through the bushes, searching for my necklace. I would never forgive myself if I lost it in one moment of anger; it was my most prized possession. Eventually though, there came a point where I could not fight through the sticks, so I stuck my arm out and swiped around the gap in the bush blindly, hoping to grasp my necklace from under there.

I still had no such luck, so I proceeded to stick it in even further, my hands scraped along the dirt and mud before it cut on something sharp and jagged. I gasped and brought my hand back out, cradling it slightly whilst examining the cut. There was a long line slashed on the back of my hand and blood was oozing out of it. It wasn't particularly deep, but it wasn't exactly shallow either. I tried to ignore the sting that the cut was producing and to distract me, I began looking for the offending object.

In all of my haste to find my swan I hadn't noticed that I had crawled right up to the wire fence that was looming threateningly over me right now. But still that did not diagnose the problem. I sighed and stood up, relishing in the relief that my knees brought me when they clicked.

I began planning to attempt to climb over the bush when I found my necklace hanging from a twig near the top of the bush in all of its glory. I let out a sigh of relief and grabbed it before hanging it back around my neck where it belonged. I turned to walk away, completely forgetting about my injury and its offender when I saw that at the side it looked as though some of the bush had been hacked away, as there was a massive hole in it. I bent around to investigate and after bending down and crawling through that hole a little bit, I found the source of the gash in my hand.

It looked like someone had used wire cutters and had removed a reasonable portion of the fence using them, because behind the bush, there was a hole large enough to fit a fully grown man through. Ah, I think I have found the entrance at which the intruders broke in through.

A part of me wanted to go running to my dad, shouting that I had found the breach so that I could receive some sort of rare praise from him. But then again a larger part of me wanted to rebel against my father and his pathetic and stupid rules and orders, and by leaving this hole intact I could even go out into Seattle when I wanted and spend as much time there as I desired.

"Bella, are you in there?" A voice floated through the air towards me from a few meters away. I jumped and quickly moved out of the bush and popped out into my hiding place. When I had stood up I saw Jacob's head peering over the bushes at me.

I hastily brushed myself off and smiled at him, hoping that my eyes weren't red and puffy, signalling that I had been crying. "Yeah I am, as you can see. What do you want?"

Jacob shuffled on his feet a little bit and looked up me guiltily. "Charlie wants to see you," he said.

"Oh," I stated, coldly. So that was why Jacob was acting shifty with me. He and almost everyone else know how my father and I had been very tense with each other lately and an outburst was imminent any time soon from one of us.

"You should go and see him. He doesn't seem to be in a very good mood." Jacob carried on, frowning when he saw the fuming expression on my face.

"That's an even better reason not to go," I mumbled under my breath to myself as I got out of the bushes. We walked up to the house in silence apart from the occasional sigh or random swear word from me as we neared my father's office.

However, just before we reached it, Jacob grabbed my elbow, halting me in my steps. "Bella, please go easy on him. He is having a hard time at the moment and I think he could do without an earful from you."

I frowned and opened my mouth to come out with some snappy retort, but before I could, Jacob gave me a tight smile and walked back in the direction we had just come from. I resisted the urge to call after him and with a sigh and after grounding my teeth together, I pulled the handle down on the door to my father's office and entered without granted permission.

"Next time, knock." My father said from his desk. As always, he didn't look up at my arrival, he just kept his head bent over some papers on his desk, his reading glasses perched at the edge of his nose. I gave a forced smile and apologised to him against my will. My father expected me to apologise every single time that I did something in his books that was counted as wrong.

"What did you want then?" I looked at my nails, signalling that I could be doing something better in my time rather than be here.

My father looked up at me and frowned. "How are you Bella?" he asked, somehow managing to make his fake concern seem real.

"I'm fine thank you," I replied, stiffly and coldly.

"I know you are angry with me, but I cannot possible endanger you in any way at the moment with information."

"The others know. You tell them everything. But yet your own daughter doesn't know a thing," I pointed out. "Do you sometimes forget that you have a child dad? A living, breathing child, who misses the comfort of her own mother." I hadn't meant to drag my mum into this, but my episode earlier came rushing back to me.

"Don't talk to me about your mother." His eyes flashed with hundreds of different emotions at once and I received some sick kind of pleasure at seeing him like this.

"Why shouldn't I? She is a blood relative of mine after all. Did you even think about how this would affect me dad? I was only seven for fucks sake. And all you did after she died was smile at me and order someone to remove her body. You didn't comfort me when I needed it. In fact you have never comforted me or been there for me. You always left that job to Sam." Years of pent up anger and unspoken words were finally being released.

"Watch your language." My father warned and his fists clenched as though he was refraining himself from smacking me in the face. "You're talking about things you know nothing about Isabella. So I suggest that you close your mouth now before you lose everything."

"I already did dad. I lost my whole life at the age of seven. There is nothing else you could possibly do to me now that wouldn't make my life worth living anymore. I had gone past that point eight years ago," I said coldly.

"Do you not think that I regret that every day of my life Bella? I miss seeing her face, her laugh, her smile. Yet again you are thinking of yourself. I have given you everything that I have to offer, but like the spoilt brat you are Bella, you always want more!" he shouted at me, waving his arms around in the air.

"You don't give me what I really need," I stated, trying to keep my voice under control.

"And what would that be? Huh? What could I give you that you don't already have?!"

"I haven't got a parent." I looked up at his face to see that he looked much taken aback by my words and also a little ashamed. "I have never had someone to hold me or come and check on me when I have nightmares since I was seven. I have never had someone who would just spend time with me, like go to the cinema or just do some general father, daughter bonding time." It was all spilling out of my mouth now and there was nothing I could do that would stop it. "You hardly know me _Charlie_." I had resolved to never call him my father again. He hadn't acted like one, thus he doesn't get the title of one. "I bet you don't know my likes or my dislikes. Do you know what I am scared of and what makes me happy? No, you don't do you? You don't know what really happened that night in Seattle, and I probably know something that would secure you this spot for the rest of your sad life."

He began shaking a little throughout my small rant and his face began to turn purple from the lack of oxygen which he should have been taking in. After a minutes silence, during which I was breathing very heavily as though I had just run a long distance, Charlie opened his mouth to talk. "Do you think I wanted all of this," he said, his voice tight and controlled. "I never wanted a child, but Renee insisted on having one. And even if I did, it certainly would have wanted a boy, not a girl like you." He hissed the last few words and I winced as tears began building up in my eyes for the second time today. "So to me Bella, you are a mistake. Do you get it? _You are a mistake_." He slowly spoke the words out as though I was mentally unable to understand them.

I felt as though someone had punctured many holes into my heart and I could hardly breathe. Charlie thought of me that way? I guess that would explain why he was so distant with me most of the time. But still that wasn't enough to calm the sudden fury that embraced me. In a rage I stormed over to his desk and grabbed the few photos of us both and hurled them towards the wall where the frame smashed.

Next, I proceeded to the walls where there were a few pictures of use and again, I hurled them at the wall or at the floor, smashing them all. Charlie stood there in a state of shock. He wasn't moving and he was just staring at me, open mouthed. I smashed any ornaments that were lying around and I even tried to break his desk lamp. And still, throughout all of this he didn't say anything. He just stood there, observing me.

When I was done I turned back to him and spat at him, my spit trailing down his suit. Still, he didn't do anything about it. "I hope you die young," I spat at him. "Because I'm not going to be around to find out anymore. Bye Dad." And with that I ran from his office. I felt him reach out for me, but I dodged him and sprinted out into the hallway.

"Bella, get back here now! I didn't mean what I said," he bellowed after me. But I don't forgive easily and his words were convincing enough, so I ran down the stairs. Tears were pouring down my cheeks and onto my clothes. I was so hurt and distraught that I could not even describe it. My own father didn't want me and he never had. How was I supposed to feel about that?

I could hear his footsteps behind mine and he never stopped calling my name, begging me to go back and talk to him. I didn't want to hear his lies, so I just shut his voice out. My hands were shaking and my stomach was flipping and rolling and I predicted that soon I would end up being sick. I ran towards the door and upon reaching it, I flung it open and rushed out onto the steps where Sam and some business men were walking up, briefcases in hand.

Ignoring any rules of etiquette that I may have learnt over the years, I rushed through them, pushing them all out of their way, ignoring their protests.

"Bella, what the fuck was that?" Sam asked as I shoved him to the side.

I didn't answer and just ran across the lawn where I knew the hole was in the fence and I could escape this shit hole that I used to call home.

"Bella, I'm sorry!" Charlie called from the front steps. He sounded so sad and desperate that I stopped in my position halfway to the hole and turned to him. He was crying as well and I almost ran back into his arms.

Almost.

But I just couldn't live with him any longer knowing that he said something like that to me. It wasn't one of those things that you could forgive and forget. No, I would remember this day for the rest of my life.

I shook my head at him and ran towards the bushes, still ignoring him. Tears were still streaming down my face and my heart was thumping erratically in my chest and I was on the verge of being sick when I scrambled through the bushes until I reached the hole. I squeezed through that and then crawled through the bushes on the other side before I came out onto the sidewalk, gasping, retching and shaking.

I lay there for a moment, regaining my composure before I heaved myself off of the concrete and staggered down the road. Soon there would be people looking for me and I wanted to be long gone before that happened.

When I was halfway down the road, I passed a black Mercedes with tinted windows. I didn't give it so much as a second glance when I passed it and I didn't hear the man who had gotten out of it either when I was twenty meters away. The black car sped past me, going a little bit too fast but I wasn't paying attention. The only thing that was occupying my thoughts was my father's words. _You are a mistake. You are a mistake. _That was all I heard and they even appeared in my vision in blood red letters.

I began running again when I heard the police sirens in the distance. I didn't know if they were after me or just speeding around to fight the rising rates of crime. Still, I wasn't going to take any risks. It had been fifteen minutes since I had left my house and the sun was beginning to set. I was somewhere in Seattle now, though I hadn't got a clue as to where I was.

I was alone, like I had been practically my whole life. These thoughts brought a fresh wave of tears and I fell to the ground, sobbing and shaking uncontrollably. I curled up into a ball clutching my sides, trying to keep myself from falling apart. _Mum, I wish you were here._

"Excuse me miss, but would you like a hand?" A kind voice asked me from above.

Slowly, I lifted my head to see the face the voice belonged to. However, I gasped when I saw who it was and memories flashed in my eyes.

"_I-I'm sorry, I-I got lost," I stuttered, coming up with a reason as to why I was invading their territory._

"_We don't like people intruding on us, do we Laurent?" One of them said, his blonde hair tied back in a low ponytail._

"_No James, we don't, and neither does out boss. And what do we do to trespassers James?" The second one asked, he had raven black hair, and had an olive complexion._

"_Why don't we let our little friend guess?" he said, leering down at me, whilst stroking his gun tenderly._

Standing in above me was the very same man – James, with the long blonde hair tied back into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. I stood up and slowly backed up, urging my throat to come up with a decent scream. But it was dry and raw; all I could get through it was my gasps for oxygen.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, tilting his head slightly to the side, a small frown etched on his forehead. But I saw past that facade, I could see the evil glint in his pale blue eyes as he saw my reaction towards him.

I began shaking and stuttering, a few signs that a panic attack might be coming.

Oh shit, he knows who I am. And he has been stalking the house and possibly watching me. What if he was the one who cut the hole in the fence, knowing that I would stumble across it and use it? My theories were becoming farfetched and out of control as I backed away from him, hoping that someone would find me and take me home.

But there was no one around to help me.

Suddenly, my back hit someone and an arm wrapped around my waist securing me there and a hand was slapped across my mouth, muffling my cries and screams that had now escaped me. My capturer began walking towards the black Mercedes that had suddenly appeared and I struggled with all of my might against him.

In front of us appeared the bronze haired man – Edward – who stalked my nightmares every night. I tried to scream louder, but the handle muffled them, rendering it to a whimper which sounded pretty pathetic.

"Thanks James, Laurent," – Edward nodded at each of them – "You've done well. Now let's get back to base and fast."

I noticed that my arms were still free and I tried elbowing Laurent and punching him. When neither of them worked, I began kicking until Edward growled slightly and grabbed my feet so that I was suspended between both of them. I squirmed in the air, trying to break at least one of their holds on me.

I lifted my arms in the air and slid down onto the floor crying out at the impact, then began clawing at Edward's hands to release his tight grip on my ankles. He dragged me across the floor towards the car and I screamed out loud when my back scraped along the pavement. My screams were very high pitched and blood curdling. I was sure that it would at least alert someone until something metal and hard pressed against my cheek, silencing me immediately.

"Now Isabella, it would be easier for us all if you just shut up. So be a good girl and get in the car before I shoot you in the leg. Is that understood?" James whispered in my ear.

I clamped my mouth shut and whimpered, a small tear escaping from my eye.

"James, I give the orders around here." Edward reminded James.

"Yes boss," he replied.

Edward hauled me to my feet and shoved me in the open back door of the car, before clambering in after me. As soon as all of the doors where shut, my mind went into overdrive again and I couldn't think straight. I cried, I kicked, I screamed at them all, trying to find any way to escape and go home where I should be right now. I didn't register anything that they were saying. I could only thinking of my panic and my fear and being terrified. But I could make out a few words like panic attack or no drugs and let's just kill her now.

When we passed a police car I began banging on the windows and screaming at them to help me because I was being kidnapped, but Edward pried me from the window and set me on his lap wrapping his arm around my waist and arms clamping me to him and then placing a hand on my mouth, silencing me. He also put his legs around mine so I couldn't move them either.

It did stop me flailing about but that just made the panic attack seem more internal and I struggled to breathe and could feel bile rising in my throat. I tried to tell them that I was going to be sick, but I couldn't even breathe enough to form any words.

So I sat there and tried to push my attack away. But I was gasping for air and my heart was thumping so hard I thought that it would escape from my chest. I tried to squirm in Edward's lap to see if it would somehow give me more oxygen, but he held me tighter and told me to stop fucking moving because it was pissing him off.

Laurent – the driver – looked at us in the mirror and frowned. "Edward, she looks kind of green. I think she might be sick soon."

"Are you going to be?" Edward asked and I nodded my head. He sighed. "Pull over now," he ordered. When we stopped, Edward opened the door and pushed me out of the car. As soon as I was free I bent over and vomited over and over again. I heard someone groan behind me and then two hands pulled my hair back away from my face. I threw up everything that I had eaten today and even some more. "I'm surprised she hasn't fainted yet. She has had a hard day," Edward said a few inches away. He must be the one holding my face and hair then.

"How do you know?" James asked.

"We have her father's office bugged," he replied nonchalantly. The thought of other people hearing my breakdown made me vomit again until I was feeling weak and could barely stand. Edward let go of my hair and I swayed on the spot before landing on the ground next to my pool of sick. I faintly registered that my panic attack had subsided, but now I felt achy and shivery. I couldn't muster any strength to stand up.

They all crouched around me, avoiding my vomit. Edward felt my forehead and sighed. "She's going to be kind of out it for a few hours now. She's gone into shock."

"Well, at least that will make my driving easier without her screaming." I heard Laurent mutter under his breath.

I felt someone's arm under my knees and behind my back as they roughly lifted me up into the air. I groaned at the movement and concentrated on not vomiting again.

"I hope she has good information. I can't wait until we try one of my methods to get it out of her," James said as we got into the car.

Suddenly the realisation set in on what was happening and everything crashed down on me in waves before I fell into the black oblivion.

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**A/N:** So Edward isn't as horrible in this chapter, but be warned. Next chapter will be very very angsty... Just saying :)

Here is a reminder of their ages at the moment: Bella:15 Jacob:16. Sam:25. Jared:24. Paul:22. Embry and Quil: 20 (They are twins by the way) Charlie: 36. Billy: 43. Edward:19. James: 27. Laurent: 29.

Read and review :D


	6. Monster

_Carl Kolchak: I don't know when exactly I was in this office last. Some ways, it seems like I never left. But no, that's not right. For at least a few days I was away, far away, in the hands of men with no faces and no names. They broke me down, broke my story down, telling me how it hadn't happened the way I claimed. At least, that's what I think they did, between injections. Memories fade fast enough without chemical help, but if I don't tell this story now, I don't think I ever will._

Bella's POV:

Slowly and wearily, I came back to my senses.

My body still felt very lethargic and heavy. My muscles were screaming at me in protest as I gently flexed each one of them in turn, checking to see if I have been severely harmed in any way. My stomach was churning, threatening to be sick again and my head was thumping with a terrible headache as though someone had repeatedly thumped something over my head. In many parts of my body, I could feel sore bruises beginning to form where I have probably been knocked around. My hands and legs were tied to something, a chair I assumed was the most likely object and every time I flexed them both, they could barely move an inch.

A groan escaped my mouth and I blinked a few times, giving my eyes time to adjust to the new light. It took a good few blinks until everything around me was no longer a blur and I could clearly make everything out – well, as much as I could with the tears beginning to well up in my eyes again.

However, once my eyes were open and fully liable to actually see, I immediately wished that I hadn't opened them, or even woke up for that matter.

Standing across the room from me, with his arms crossed over his chest, was Edward.

He was staring at me with a brooding expression on his face and was staring at me intently, with a frown on his forehead and giving me the most filthiest, uninterpretable look that I had ever received – and trust me, I had received a fair amount of them from my father's associates in the past when I had barged in on important, top secret meetings.

Just thinking about my dad made me wince and fill my heart with guilt. I just could not get his face out of my mind. His broken expression before I ran away just kept swarming in front of my eyes, even when they were open like now. He had looked so sorry and guilty and as though he really wanted me to stay with him. So that left me wondering if he really regretted what he had said to me? But even if he did, it was not something I was going to soon forget. It hit home too much and hurt more than you could imagine.

But I might not even see him again. I mean, I am under their clutches now. What is there to stop them from torturing and then killing me once they get what they wanted? I was prone now to whatever they throw at me, it being pain, caring or even worse, _death._ But really thinking about it, I wasn't even sure if I should be afraid of death. If I died, I wouldn't have to face my father again and I would also get to see my mother again – even if it was in heaven. I wouldn't have to snoop to find out anything because I would see everything in my space above the clouds and my father wouldn't have to carry me around as a 'burden' as he had so kindly put it earlier. Then maybe, if I became an angel everything would be all happy and fluffy, with bright sunshine and smiles and maybe even some rainbows if I was feeling especially nice...

"Rainbows?" A voice asked from across the room.

My eyes, which I hadn't realised, had drifted to the floor, snapped back to his face, which I noticed looked faintly amused.

"So, I take it you're awake then because you have been giving me a few false alarm over the last few hours," he smirked, "you talk in your sleep a lot."

I pursed my mouth together and glared at him, trying to make myself to seem like I wasn't at all afraid of him, but unfortunately, my breathing and heartbeat were betraying me. My forehead began to sweat and I started to panic again and I purposely clamped my mouth shut, just so that I wouldn't cry or scream out loud, I didn't want to appear weak in front of him, I was going to show them all that I was not going to be pushed around easily.

He pushed himself away from the wall and walked over to me. Upon crouching in front of me, he leant in so our faces were almost touching. "So, Isabella isn't it?" he asked, with another smirk on his face.

"It's Bella," I snarled, "and I would appreciate it if you let me go."

He ignored me and carried on, "I guess that you already suspect why you are here." He paused as if to let me speak, but I just glared at him before he carried on. "So why don't you make my life so much easier and tell me what I want to know."

His eyes searched my face as I deliberated on what to say. After a while and decided to say, "Fuck you!"

He exhaled sharply and stood up and walked to the edge of the room before returning to me, dragging a chair with him. He placed it in front of me and sat down, our knees barely brushing against each other. He stared at me and I stared at him back, waiting for him to do something. "You could just save all of the pain that will come later on now and just tell me what you know about us. _Everything_," he emphasised.

"I don't know anything. And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you a single thing," I spat.

"You are going to fucking tell me what you know," he growled, putting his hand in his coat pocket.

"I don't know anything about you!" I exclaimed, kindly concealing that what little I did know, was very irrelevant to our conversation.

"Like hell you don't. You're his child, of course he going to tell you everything. My father does! Do you know who he is?"

I shook my head and gulped. "No," I whispered, terrified that he might hit me for not knowing.

"I think you can guess," he said, crossing his arms back over his chest and leaning back on the chair with a little smirk on his face.

Slowly, I shook my head again, not quite able to think straight. All I could think about was how short my life was about to come. "It's not hard," he pressed.

He fell silent for a minute, letting me think it through and when I wasn't able to come up with an answer, he sighed. "Carlisle Cullen, I'm sure you would have heard of him."

I gasped. Yes, I had heard of him. I mean, who in this entire world hadn't? He was on the top wanted list for everything and my dad had hundreds of departments just dedicated to finding him. And yet here I was, sitting here bound, talking to his son.

"You're a Cullen?"

"Yes, I am. So you see Bella, you and I are not so much different after all. We both come from dominating families and we are both fighting to get our voices heard. I kidnapped you to prove myself to my father and in return your kidnap will alert your father that he should be more protective and caring about you. We both benefit from this." He gave me what he must have seen as a reassuring smile, but it looked more like a sadistic one.

"I'm nothing like you. I don't go around killing innocent people, bombing public places and bugging people's private offices. So you can go and fuck yourself for all I care." I was trying to keep strong, but my voice was wavering.

He smirked again and changed the subject. "Your father doesn't seem like a very nice man," he noted.

"He is!" I spat, letting all of my hatred for Edward consume me. "He is the best leader in the world; no one could do a better job than him, including your father."

"I beg to differ," he said coldly, his mood changing within a fraction of a second. All amusement in his eyes had quickly vanished. "You praise him so much, when, he doesn't even love you." Edward raised an eyebrow at me.

"He – he does love me!" I exclaimed, trying to convince myself. "Every father loves their child." But really, did mine love me? I had pondered over this question before and I could spend hours debating on this subject with myself and still not come to a satisfying conclusion.

"Don't try and deny it Bella," he sneered, "I heard that conversation you had with your dad myself, I know what he said and so did you."

"Stop it!" I cried. "I know what you are trying to do and it isn't going to work! All of my family are close and nothing will tear me away from them."

"Really, do you think so? But Bella, what if I told you that none of them really cared for you? That you were just a burden to them and they all wished you would go away. That girls weren't fit for the life you lead at the moment?"

"They do care for me, they are like my brothers," I croaked out, determined to not let him get inside of my head, even though it seemed as though he knew just about everything about me – all of my hopes, my fears and my insecurities.

"So where were they when you cry about your mother? Where are they when you and your father have an argument? Where are they when you attempted to kill yourself a few years ago and no one would have discovered you if the maid hadn't walked into your bathroom, only to find your wrists cut and blood pooling on the floor around you?"

"I – They were busy..." I frowned. "How did you even know about that?"

"Like I said, your father's office is bugged. I remember him talking about it to Billy Black on the phone. He was saying something along the lines of 'She is such a stupid girl. I don't know what has gotten into her. She is a fucking spoilt bitch, I give her everything and this is how she tries to repay me. Hell, I would kill her myself if it wasn't for the reason Renee would be turning in her grave if I tried something like that.'" Edward gave a short and bitter laugh. "Don't you see Bella? Everything isn't always in black and white like you may think it is. Even the ones who love you can stab you in the back."

"You're lying," I accused in a whisper. "He wouldn't say anything like that about me. I know that deep down he loves me, even if he doesn't show it."

Edward groaned. "You are such a naive little girl, you know that don't you? You always see the best out of everything. Even when there is nothing to see! Someone needs to teach you a lesson."

"I'm not naive," I protested, "I'm just not a sadistic, fucked up man like you."

Edward's eyes flashed with something unrecognisable and he balled his fists up, so hard that I could see the tendons straining against his skin. "Don't ever speak to me like that again. You got it?"

My eyes widened at the sound of menace in his voice and shivered from it. I nodded, my throat having suddenly given up on my and died.

He closed his eyes for a few seconds and slowly, he stance relaxed and when he eyes were full open again, he looked back to normal. Well, normal for him anyway, no one I have ever passed in the street has ever had this most terrifying look on their face.

He squinted for a moment, appraising me. "Fine," he said, "you can go home. It looks as though I am not going to get anything out of you."

"Really?" I gasped, not quite able to believe my own to ears.

"No," he laughed, "are you fucking stupid? I have got one of your father's most prized possessions. Someone he would do almost anything for." He smirked as though daring me to talk back to me, but I didn't say anything, I just tried to push away the tears forming, yet again, in my eyes.

"But after hearing your little argument earlier, I'm not sure that he really cares that much about you. I mean, what kind of father will tell their own flesh and blood that they don't want them and they never have?" He gave a harsh laugh and stood up, before walking behind me and from what I could sense; he had crouched down behind me. "You could just get back at your father right now. You could join us and help us out a little, tell us what we really need to know." His lips brushed against my ear from behind and his breath tickled my ear.

"I'll give you a little while to think it over." And he stood up and left the room, turning the lights off along the way, leaving me in complete and utter darkness.

----~~~~----

Something hard smacked across my cheek and I groaned opening my eyes.

From the looks of it, I had fallen asleep while I was supposed to be thinking about my options. Not that I found any of my options – or should I say, option – very appealing. There were only two ways about it; I either join, and help them, or I die. It's quite simple really.

I gasped as the full impact of a second blow hit my face again, this time, on the other cheek. Tears streaked down my cheek and I began sobbing, my face feeling as though it was on fire and I swore I could feel a bruise beginning to form again.

"I didn't fucking tell you to go to sleep!" Edward growled. "I told you to think about what I said, you don't sleep until I tell you to," he paused for a moment, "Well, that is _if_ I allow you too."

He stood up and walked away from me, standing against the wall again.

"So, what do you think then sweetheart? Are you going to join us? Just think, if you helped us out a little, my father could give you a very high ranking position and you would be honoured amongst us all for the rest of your life."

I glared at him for a moment before opening my mouth and releasing numerous amount of swear words, just saying exactly what I thought of him and his offer and where he can shove it.

He watched me and when I was finished he sighed. "Well, I guess that is your answer, and don't say I didn't warn you." And with that he turned on his heels and walked out of the door, shrouding me in darkness once again.

I didn't think he would return so fast, but he did just after a few minutes. But this time, he wasn't alone.

He brought James with him, who, if I must say, had a very sadistic, evil smile plastered all over his face.

"This is your last chance," Edward warned. "You have three seconds to decide."

"One."

"Two." He raised his eyebrows at me.

"Thre-"

"Fuck you!" I screamed.

"If that's the way it has to be." Edward turned to James. "I have family business to attend too. Make her talk," he demanded before leaving me with James.

James stalked over towards me slowly, his eyes glinting.

"Well Isabella, you're going to regret that decision for the rest of your short, pathetic life." And with that, he withdrew a long knife from his pocket and stroked it tenderly before walking over to me.

That was when I screamed.

---~~~~---

Fuzzy, it was all fuzzy and blank after that. I could barely remember anything. I couldn't remember anything that James said to me and I couldn't remember anything that came out of my mouth only that is sounded all garbled to me.

Maybe it made sense to everyone else, who knows?

I know for one thing though, Edward didn't return and for that I was glad. I don't think I could stand anymore emotional pain on top of the physical pain that was consuming me at that moment.

_Pain_.

It was all I could feel. It was everywhere, licking through my blood, making me scream out in pure, uncontrollable agony.

Though was it even pain? Or was it another one of their mind tricks that they were playing with me again?

Yes, that could be it. In fact it could be both. I know that these kinds of things can happen, where a lot of the pain was all in your mind – psychological – I had seen television programs on them.

But none of those programs could even come close to what I was going through and feeling right now. Heck, I'm not sure if anyone could. I felt as though I was the only person in the world who has ever experienced this amount of pain and I was the only one who mattered.

_Please God. Please send someone to help me,_ I begged silently in my mind, not trusting myself to open my mouth. I wasn't sure how long I can withstand all of this, but I did know that it would not be long before I spilt. _This isn't humane. Who could do this to another human being?!_

After a while, I began to sense that there was a routine and that they were playing at it very well.

At first he would cause me as much pain as possible before injecting me with a substance which caused me to fall asleep.

That was my favourite part – the sleeping. It gave me an escape from this all and I could just live in my dreams where everything was all nice and happy – even if it was not for long. It was all I could look forward to in this dark hell.

But then I would wake up again and the pain would be an even more shock to me that it was before, because I had come from the sweet painless heaven, to this fiery burning hell which made the pain seems intensified by one hundred per cent.

When I woke up I would be on a small mattress in a small, dirty room.

James would be sitting next to me, waiting for me to wake up and when I did, he would smooth my hair away from my face in an almost loving gesture and tell me that he could make all of the pain go away, if I just told him what my father was planning.

Of course, it was such a tempting feat, but I somehow still managed to keep my mouth closed.

And then the cycle would start again.

But after many times, I could begin to sense that James was started to get pissed off with me and that fact that despite all that he was putting me through, I still wasn't talking.

And sure enough, he soon snapped.

At this moment in time, I was strapped to a table, my arms tied above me and my legs tied down so that I could barely move. James had just repeatedly punched and kicked me, so hard that I was sure to be black and blue. He had injected me with mild poisons, which, while they weren't a high enough dosage to kill me, they still fucking hurt.

But now, this was the last straw.

"Come on now Bella, I know you don't want to go through this again, just as I don't want to be the one hurting you," James cooed, trying to sound nice.

I whimpered and swore at him, not letting my guard down.

"Just a few little words Bella and it will all go away," he whispered sweetly.

I cried out as he punched me repeatedly in the stomach.

"No? Is that still not going to work for you Bella?" he asked, cocking his head slightly to the side. "Well, I just might have to raise the stakes then." He reached into his trousers pockets and withdrew the knife and waved in threateningly in my face.

I knew better than to take him seriously though. He had used this threat before, but not going with it.

"Fuck you," I gasped. "I hope you and your whole fucking family die of some awful disease. And I hope you go slowly and painfully."

His eyes flashed and his pressed the tip of the knife to my stomach. "You want to fucking say that again bitch?" he asked quietly, managing to keep reasonably calm even though I could see the anger that was about to burst out.

"I hope you die and go to hell!"

He gripped the knife hard and pressed it down, piercing the skin. I screamed out loud, filling the space with my ear splitting, blood curdling shriek. The pain in my stomach intensified as I cried out more and he began dragging the knife downwards, towards my belly button.

I could feel the blood escaping from the wound and dripping onto the table besides me and I could also smell it as well.

Rusty and metallic, the scent hung around me in the air, clinging to every inch of skin that it touched.

I screamed and screamed, hoping that someone would answer my prayers, releasing me from this torture and send me to heaven, where everything would be light and shining.

None of this crap.

But God did answer my prayers; just not in the form I would have liked him too.

My vision began to blur and I could feel my eyelids closing, despite how much I fought against them.

I was going to die. And surprisingly, this information did not bother me one bit. I mean why would it? I was going to see my mum again and she would welcome me with open arms with a big smile plastered all over her face.

In the near distance, I heard a door slam open and someone swear furiously. "What the hell is going on here?" he demanded, just before I let the darkness consume me.

----~~~~----

Something hard pressed on my wound and I gasped, wrenching my eyes open.

"Sorry," Edward murmured and continued dabbing away at my wound.

I groaned again and tried to struggle out of his grip. I didn't want his filthy hands touching and roaming my body, but he refused to let me get up.

"Stop it," he snapped. "I'm trying to help you. Can't you see that?" And he pushed a little harder as if trying to prove his point.

"Sorry," I murmured sarcastically, sounding a little drunk and I swear I saw Edward's lips twitch up slightly at the corners in a small but yet recognisable smile.

But then suddenly, all of the recent events suddenly flooded back to me and I began crying again.

I hadn't died. God hadn't answered my prayers after all and let me see my mother again in heaven. Instead, he sent me back to earth, back to my own personal hell where I was about to get tortured even more. I glanced up at Edward and he was staring at my stomach with a look of concentration on his facing, dabbing away with a white cloth with a smell hanging off it that burnt my nose. I frowned, my wound wasn't hurting. What happened? Am I really in heaven after all? Because I could feel no pain whatsoever, so this definitely wasn't hell.

"I dragged James off you before he managed to kill you," Edward explained, turning away and grabbing a long roll of bandage from a small table in the corner of the small, dirty mattress room. "I used some local anaesthetic on your knife wound, which is why you can't feel any pain."

"Oh," I said and we fell into silence while he wrapped my stomach up in bandages.

"Why didn't you just let me die?" I asked him when he had finished.

He stared at me for a long moment before answering. "Someone close to my heart reminded me of who I am." Then like always, he walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

----~~~~----

_News flash_

_The Volturi are now in control of Russia. The death casualty is still unknown as the country has been blocked off from all entrances and any planes that attempt to fly over are rocketed down._

_Who are these Volturi and what is their aim?_

_How will the Swan's take to this new terrorist group? Especially when they have a large one already on their hands._

_This is Katie Smith, reporting to you Kiev in Ukraine. Back to you John at the studio._

* * *

**A/N:** Meh. That was the biggest bunch of shit I have ever written. No joke.

So sorry for the late update, I was supposed to update yesterday but skype distracted me... But I have updated now :D

So what do you think? Like Hate?

IMPORTANT! I have been nominated for a Faithful Shipper award under the category 'Fiction you most wish was in the spotlight'! Please vote for me here : http: / / thefaithfulshipperawards . / round2voting. htm Just take out the spaces. There is also a direct link on my profile. Just next to the space that says Fiction you most wish was in the spotlight, type in The Ashes Like Snow by Dustyrose0394 :)

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	7. Confusing

_"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."_

_- Albert Einstein_

Edward's POV:

I had left the girl – _Bella,_ as she liked to be called – with James, hoping that he would be able to get at least _something_ from her, seeing as I had failed in that area. Why I had failed? I knew, but yet I didn't at the same time, if that made any sort of sense at all. Theoretically, my tactic should have worked. I suspected that if I had used it on anyone else it would have, but nothing seemed to work for this girl.

She seemed like a strong, stubborn girl and I was willing to go to every single length to try and break that and all of her faith in those that supposedly loved her, but still, she was very naive to what was happening around her. Most of it was staring right at her in the face, jumping around with bright pink banners and fog horns blaring. But still, she seemed oblivious.

It was weird really, how a girl such as her, can still be strong willed and stubborn and yet naive, scared and innocent at the same time.

That girl was quite the enigma.

In the end, when all the emotional blackmail hadn't worked, I tried threatening her with pain, and still, she told me to fuck off as though she wasn't afraid of what I threw at her. So no matter how much I didn't want to, I resorted to leaving her with James, knowing that he was not the gentlest being in this fucked up world of ours, and I knew that he was fucked up in the head, but took his orders seriously.

How seriously he took these ones, I didn't want to know.

Groaning slightly, I took a drag of my cigarette then watched as I blew the smoke into the night air. Yet again, I was standing on the balcony outside of our apartment, thinking and stressing. I really should stop doing this, fretting over something that shouldn't seem important, but if my dad ever caught wind of what I was doing behind his back... Well, I just wouldn't like to think of the consequences.

Or maybe he wouldn't really give a shit. I mean, he was a Cullen, one of the most feared men in the world but apart from that, I wasn't sure how opposed he was to kidnapping and torturing a girl the exact same age as his own teenager daughter.

So I had just opted to keep this away from him until absolutely necessary, because if I actually managed to get something from her, I wanted it to be such a big surprise to him and maybe he would forgive me for messing up a few months ago, killing that innocent boy.

Just after taking another long drag from my cigarette, I heard the door behind me slide open and I didn't even have to turn around anymore to know who it was.

"Alice, what do you want now?" I asked irritated by the fact that I rarely got to spend time on my own anymore. I turned around to find her dithering behind me.

"I just wanted to see how you were," she said, taking a step back towards the door. "I can go if you want me to."

I shut my eyes for a second, trying to release any pent up frustration that I had mustered and when I opened them I gave her a small smile. "No, its fine, you can say if you want. I could do with some company anyway."

She gave me a small smile back before she ran up to me and hugged me, making me stumble backwards a step with the force. "Hey," I teased slightly. "We have got to stop spending our time like this, it's like we can't even have a proper conversation anymore." I rubbed her back slightly while she hugged me tighter, he face buried in my chest.

"Jazz is drunk," she mumbled, her voice muffled by my shirt. "I don't like it when he is like that. He scares me."

I stiffened again and groaned. "Alice, please. I'm going to tell you again, please stop-" However, before I could finish, Alice cut me off.

"I'm not breaking up with him," she said defiantly. "I love him and I always will until the day I die, so don't even _start_ on me again Edward." She poked me hard in the chest.

"Your fifteen, you may have a crush on him, but you can't be in love," I replied shoving her lightly away from me.

"And how would _you_ know Edward? You never talk to girls and even if you did, I dread to think how you treat them," she exclaimed angrily, pushing me in retaliation.

_Yes, you would hate to see how I was treating Bella, Alice. So would everyone else._ "Shut up Alice. Maybe I just don't want to be with someone. Not everyone has to be paired together. I like being on my own Alice, so stop dictating to me. Just because I don't need to spread my legs for someone, does not mean I can't be happy."

Alice opened her mouth to answer back, but she soon closed it and tears welled up in her eyes and turning on her heels, she stormed back inside sobbing on the way.

Aw crap. I had just made my little sister cry by basically calling her a slut. "Alice!" I called after her retreating form. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it!"

I ran after her back inside, down the hall past the room where everyone was cheering and shouting. Tonight, Esme had decided to host a small dinner party for our entire family and close friends. Everyone was here for once, Emmett, Carlisle, Rosalie, Jasper, Esme, John and Esmeralda (Rosalie's and Jasper's parents) and of course, me and Alice. Walking past the sitting room, I could hear laughter and people clinking beer bottles and wine glasses together, all of them enjoying themselves apart from me – partly because I never enjoy myself – and Alice, who I now just upset.

Eventually, I found her in the kitchen where she was leaning against the counter with her face in her hands. I could tell she was crying for the noises that he mouth was emitting and also from the shake of her shoulders.

I stalked over to her and pulled her into my arms. She made no move to hug me back or even move away for that matter. She just stood there, stiff and firm, still crying her eyes out.

"Alice," I murmured. "You know that I didn't mean what I said about you."

"But you did," she replied, wiping away her tears with her wrist. "I know everyone is thinking that we are having sex, as I know that dad pulled Jasper to one side last week and had a few words with him. But Jasper isn't like that. He_ loves_ me which is all that counts."

She looked up at me fiercely and said, "Please don't give up Edward. I know there is something here." And she placed her hand over my chest were my 'heart' was supposed to be.

I placed my large hand over her small one and took it away from my body and laughed bitterly. "Come on Alice, we both know that there is nothing there. There never has been and there never will be. So why not give up hope before it even comes?"

Alice shoved me in the chest for the second time tonight and untangled herself from my arms. "Edward Cullen," she said, hitting me on the shoulder.

"Ow what was that for?" I protested, rubbing the spot where she had hit me – and quite hard if I may add.

"You!" she shouted. "You need to stop being like this! It's not good for you and to be frank Edward, you are putting such a downer on everyone else. It's pathetic really."

"Thanks Alice," I said dryly, stepping away from her and grabbed a can of beer from the fridge.

I opened the can and took a sip of the cold, frothy liquid. Alice glared at me and followed my move by trying to take a can of beer out of the fridge also. Grabbing her wrist gently, I smiled. "No alcohol for the minor," I said lightly, tugging her away from the fridge.

She glared at me again and took a glass bottle of J2o out of the fridge instead. "You have to be such a kill joy," she muttered, giving me a dark look again.

"I'm just watching out for my baby sister," I laughed, giving her a little nudge.

She looked annoyed for a second but then she smiled and nudged me back. "It's only a few years and besides, Emmett lets me drink!" she protested.

"Yeah, well Emmett isn't responsible like me." She snorted at that.

I smiled at her and walked over to the cupboard intending to find some Doritos or something. Pringles, Walkers, Pombears, but there were no Doritos. I was sure there were some in here this morning... I bet Emmett has eaten them all already. He was such a fat pig.

"Hey guys!" Emmett boomed from behind me as he entered the kitchen. I heard Alice gasp and then the shatter of glass against the tiled floor.

Upon turning around at this sound I laughed. Emmett had made Alice jump which resulted in her dropping her glass on the floor. Alice muttered something under her breath and bent down to pick up the shards of glass. Emmett laughed as well at Alice and then after grabbing some more beer, he left the room, chuckling to himself.

I looked down at Alice who was scrambling around on the floor looking for glass fragments and I was about to suggest that she get a dustpan and brush when she cut herself.

She swore and gasped and when she opened her fist, I could see all of the scarlet blood that was coated on her hand and all over the glass. Shocked, she dropped all of the glass, letting it slightly tinkle as it hit the floor for the second time; droplets of dark blood also fell with them. She watched them fall and it wasn't long before she started crying.

"Alice, are you okay?" I asked as I rushed over to her.

She didn't answer and instead shook her head and carried on crying. I groaned. "Come on Alice, it isn't that bad," I said, rolling my eyes. She whimpered and didn't stop the waterworks so I grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the sink where I turned on the cold tap water. I put her hand underneath it, letting it wash all of the blood away. She cried out a bit when the water hit her cut, probably stinging her hand a little bit but her sobs soon ceased.

"See, it wasn't that horrible was it?" She shook her head and looked up at me, her brown eyes still watery and wide as though she was begging me.

I gasped and stepped away from her.

Alice's eyes, they were exactly like hers. Like Bella's. They were looking at me as though pleading for her life or to rid of the pain. They looked like they were boring into the depths of my soulless soul.

"Edward, what's wrong?" Alice inquired, frowning.

But I couldn't see Alice, I could just see Bella, crying, looking so lost and hurt.

Alice and Bella, they were so different, but yet, they were the same. They had the same eyes, the same skin and hair colour, they were the same age, they had the same stubbornness, heck they probably had similar personalities.

Was this why I suddenly felt terrible by what I was putting Bella through? Was it because she suddenly reminded me so much of my little sister, the same sister who I had vowed to love and protect as long as I could? Even if that meant telling her the harsh truth when I believed it was necessary.

How could I do something so horrific to a young girl the same age as my sister? And having a few of the same traits didn't make me feel any better, surprisingly enough, it made me feel worse.

Without so much as a second glance at Alice, I sped out of the room and left the building, my mind changed and set.

----~~~~----

Half an hour later, I entered the old, derelict building in one of the rougher areas of Seattle. Normally, it only takes me about fifteen minutes to get here, but tonight, police were crawling everywhere, swarming the streets like ants on an ants nest. They were stopping cars and interrogating random people on the street, I assumed, asking if anyone had seen the girl who was hidden deeply in this building.

I smiled to myself satisfactorily; the chances of someone finding her _here_ were very slim. No-one ever ventured here anymore, and I think, the last person to come out here was Isabella herself and if everything had gone to plan, the police had reason to suspect that she was out of the city anyway, but were probably just doing the routine check around here in case someone _did_ see something.

Yeah, right.

However, in the thirty minute period, a lot of my regret had washed away and I was beginning to go back to wanting to _hurt_ Isabella. I wanted to punish her for everything her father had done to both me and my family; for practically exiling us for these past years, forcing us into hiding; for killing numerous of my ancestors and distant and close relatives that should still be living now.

But no, I couldn't do that. It was like someone hurting Alice and I know I would die if Alice was ever in a situation like Bella was – well, of course I would try and save her first before doing anything as rational as that, and besides, I think Jasper would go before me.

Frustrated, I resisted the urge to punch a wall. _Fuck, I shouldn't be thinking like this, I am a Cullen for Christ's sake_, I thought to myself, bunching my fists into balls. _Now is _not_ the time to go all sensitive._

Mashing my mouth together, I set off down the hallway, automatically blocking off the breathing through my nose so that I didn't have to smell the rancid, pungent smell of this disgusting, filthy place.

I hit the bottom of the stair case when I began to change my mind again.

_Why should I help her? She is a Swan, I mean she deserves what she gets; she shouldn't have been born into that family if she doesn't want to be put through this. It's all her precious little daddy's fault that she is in this mess in the first place,_ my dark side of me said. _Pain and lots of it will be a good reminder to how important she is in this world, and getting good information about plans, meetings and how much they knew would also be an added bonus._

On the other hand, my more 'loving' side was arguing back. _She is only a teenage girl Edward,_ it reminded me. _She is Alice's age! Do you think Alice would be able to handle that?_ I shook my head saying no, even though the voices were _inside_ my head. _You could kill her if you carry on like this. She is fifteen Edward, have you no heart? Just think of your little sister Alice. Alice, who makes you smile when you are feeling down, Alice whose laugh is so contagious it makes you like and Alice who you would go any lengths for to see her smile if she is feeling down and depressed._

I could probably argue with myself for hours on end and still not get anywhere, but something else made my mind up.

On the floor above me, a terrible, screeching sound rang through the air. It was full of so much agony and anguish it made my blood run cold and the entire colour from my face drained, leaving me supposedly pale. It was something that wouldn't sound well within a horror film, like when the young girl is running from a sadist and then suddenly he is there and stabs her in the heart with a knife.

Yeah, the scream sounded _exactly_ like that.

Hoping that James hadn't done anything _too_ rash, I sprinted up the stairs and along the grimy corridors towards the source of the screaming. The pitch was getting higher with every second that it took me to reach the door. However, as I slammed the door open, her echoes became quieter and as I entered the room, the first thing I saw was that she was slowly losing consciousness and then the second thing I noticed was that James was leaning over her with a bloody dagger in his hand and upon look slightly downwards, I observed that blood was gushing from a wound of Bella's stomach, which would be the source of her screaming then.

"What the hell is going on here?" I demanded in slight horror. Whatever I had expected James to do was nothing as close to this monstrosity that he had produced here. I kept my gaze on James as he slowly turned to face me. It didn't escape my notice either that the grip on his knife visibly tightened.

"She tested my patience," James growled, sounding and looking half mad. "I told her that if she just listened to me, it wouldn't have come to _this_." He waved his hand at the now unconscious body beside him. "I have a half mind to stab her through the heart now.

"James, step away from Bella," I said cautiously. I knew what I had gotten myself into when I had asked James to do this job, I knew he was a bit fucked up in the brain, but I never imagined in my whole existence that he would do something as awful as that.

James glanced down at her body and laughed before saying, "Why don't I just kill her now? It will save you the hassle of doing it yourself and her, the pain that she will receive when she wakes up. Well, that is if she wakes up. The blood from her wound will probably kill her first if anything."

Reaching into my jacket, my hand emerged with a gun in its grasp which I pointed at James. "If you don't get out of this fucking room now James, I swear to god that I will not hesitate to pull this trigger. So if you want to see thirty, I suggest you leave before I do lose my patience with you. Is that understood?" I said in the most menacing voice I could muster.

The effect must have worked because James gave a shaky nod and dropped the knife, letting the sound cling throughout the room, the only other sound apart from three peoples breathing, one of which was becoming much laboured.

James swept past me and out the door. I waited until I could hear his footsteps down the stairs before proceeding towards Bella.

When I reached her, I brushed some hair out of her sweaty forehead and sighed. This wasn't some scratch that was going to go away eventually, this was a wound – deep probably – that needed immediate medical attention and sanitised equipment to repair it.

She cried out when I applied gentle pressure on her skin above the wound and quickly removed it. No matter how much I loathed her at the moment, I didn't want to cause any more pain than she currently was in. It must be bitch to put up with something like that and besides, I did have some compassion, no matter how small it is, I was still a human being.

Groaning after realising what I would have to do, I put one arm under her knees and another under her back, before picking her up, bridle style.

She moaned a little but besides from that, she kept reasonably quiet. I walked a few steps and stumbled a little under the new found weight in my arms. Of course, she was nowhere near heavy, but me being a lazy ass fucker, I hadn't worked out in a while and I guess that it was beginning to take its toll. I stalked towards the door and immensely grateful that James had left it open, I walked out into the hallway outside and towards a small room with a cot on it.

When we entered it, I found that it had recently been used as well as there were signs everywhere that there had been a struggle. Not wanting to think about what James had been up too, I placed Bella on the small mattress.

And then I began to panic.

Shit, what was I going to do now? I only had the basics down for first aid and none of it included stitching up stab wounds.

Crap, shit, bugger, fuck, bollocks.

What was I going to do?! Even though my dad had passed medical school and was now a doctor – with a disguise and a different name of course – I couldn't go to him and ask him, he would probably castrate me and then I would get hung, drawn and quartered. Well, something along those lines anyway.

I did have the basic first aid equipment in the boot of my car, maybe there is something useful within it...

Not wanting to take much time, I ran – or should I say, sprinted – out the door and eventually out of the building towards the bushes where my car was carefully concealed within them.

Opening the trunk of my car, I grabbed the leather bag which held the medical supplies and ran all the way back up to her room, praying that she had not somehow gotten up and miraculously escaped in the short time in which I was gone. Even if she had gotten up, she wouldn't have gotten far with that thing on her stomach.

Thankfully, she was still unconscious when I re-entered the room. The first thing I did was take off my shirt and then my t-shirt, before putting the shirt back on with the top few buttons still undone, showing off some of my chest. I scrunched my t-shirt in a roughly shaped ball and hoping that blood stains would come out, I pressed it gently down on her wound, trying to stop the flow of her blood.

She groaned softly but she didn't wake up from her slumber, which would make my next job much easier. I rummaged through the medical bag, surprised to find that there was some anaesthetic in it. I guess my dad was more prepared than I had him down for. Tearing off the cleanest part of my t-shirt that I could find, I poured some local anaesthetic on it and then proceeded to dab it on and around Bella's wound, not even really registering to the fact that really, I should have cleaned it a little first.

Once happy that I had applied the drug to every visible area of her stomach, I found some sort of sanitizer, and hoping that it would have a cleaning effect on the wound, I poured some of it onto a new piece of clean cloth and then began dabbing away at the wound with that.

The blood was not pouring from the gash as much as it had been before, but it was still releasing enough blood to worry me.

Yes, she definitely was going to need stitches, but how the fuck was I supposed to administer that process? I hardly had any idea what I am doing now, let alone sew pieces of skin together.

A gasp emerged from Bella's mouth and her eyes wrenched open, full of shock and fear. I assumed that the drug had not taken full effect yet and that I had pressed down harder than I intended to. I studied her face for a minute before muttering, "Sorry," and then carried on cleaning her stomach.

She groaned and tried to move away from me, but I pressed down on her collarbone with one hand to try and keep her in place. Bella shook her head and tried to push herself up. We both struggled for a few more seconds before I finally snapped, "Stop it," I ordered. "I'm trying to help you. Can't you see that?"

She summoned a really sarcastic supply, but somehow during saying it, she sounded drunk than anything else. I could feel my lips curling up at the edges but I resisted the urge to smile, nothing about this situation was funny and I did not want some annoying brat making me smile. Especially since she was my sworn enemy from the day she was born.

A few seconds later, however, I heard sobs and when I snuck a glance at her face; I saw that she was crying again. I returned back to my work and eventually, the sobs decreased and I began to feel her eyes on the side of my head.

"I dragged James off you before he managed to kill you," I said, feeling compelled to explain to her what had happened after she went limp. I turned away and grabbed a long roll of bandage from a small table in the corner of the small, dirty mattress room. "I used some local anaesthetic on your knife wound, which is why you can't feel any pain."

She gave a small "Oh" as a reply and then we lapsed into silence again while I attempted to wrap up her stomach with the bandages. It was an easy feat as she seemed very reluctant to lift her top any higher than it was already, but she did give in – after much struggle – and I lifted her top so that I could see half of her bra.

Being the 'gentleman' I was, I didn't look much in that direction and kept my eyes to myself and when I had successfully wrapped everything up, she spoke again. "Why didn't you just let me die?" she asked letting her eyes widen and cloud with confusion.

They were so much like Alice's.

I stared at her, flicking between visions of Alice laughing and Bella lying down on this cot covered in her own blood.

"Someone close to my heart reminded me of who I am," I said shortly, before turning around and leaving the room, slamming the door behind me, certain that the girl won't be going anywhere anytime soon with a numb stomach.

----~~~~----

I made a quick call to Jasper a few minutes after leaving her alone, telling him about my predicament and asking him to help me with my problem. Despite him dating my little sister, I trusted Jasper the most out of everyone not to tell anybody else or even worse, my father. Of course, he was more than displeased with what I had done, but he did agree to help me stitch her up. Jasper had received necessary amounts of training from my father on how to deal with situations like this which was why I had called him.

Twenty minutes later, he arrived at the building with a larger leather bag than the one I had upstairs.

"I thought you were drunk," I noted as Jasper walked up to me.

He rolled his eyes and laughed. "Okay, I'll admit, I was a little tipsy but Alice over exaggerated as always. Besides, I feel back to normal now," he said with a nonchalant shrug.

"I hope," I muttered to myself before signalling that I wanted him to follow me. As we made our way up to the room, I told Jasper everything, from the moment I had first seen her until me attempting to fix her up.

Jasper seemed mildly surprised that I had managed to keep my plan from Carlisle for so long but still quite appalled that I had let something like this happen to a poor teenage girl.

I flung the door open to find Bella holding her hand up in front of her face, her hand coated with blood and she was staring at it with some sick kind of fascination. The blood had soaked through the bandages, signalling that she needed to be stitched up and fast.

Jasper frowned and sighed, not really bothering to hide his hatred for the girl and started towards her.

When she took Jasper in, her eyes widened again and she uttered a soft scream before trying to scramble away from him with no much success. He grabbed her and I helped him hold her down while he threaded up a needle.

She squirmed and cried as Jasper cut the bandages off her and then started screaming when he sterilised the top of the needle.

I clamped a hand on top of her mouth, muffling her cries and tried to reassure her in some way. Not that being reassured by your kidnapper was something that would ever happen in a million years, but hey, I tried.

The next ten minutes was horrible for all of us. It was horrible for Bella because she had to watch herself get sewed up. It was horrible for me because I had to endure her trying to hit me, bite me and lick me, all to get my hands off of her and lastly it was horrible for Jasper because he was the one who I had woken up just to be dragged out here so that he can attend to a teenage enemy – and also because she kept trying to kick him in the balls.

Jasper had nearly finished the procedure when the dreaded lights and sounds filtered through the window.

It was the police.

Their sirens were blaring through the once stillness of the night and the blue and red flashes were illuminating the room.

Both Jasper and I glanced at each other and paled, knowing what was about to happen.

Isabella, of course, seemed pleased about this and began screaming – my hand was still over her mouth – and began flailing her arms about, trying to get us off of her again.

"What should we do?" I asked Jasper, knowing we only had mere seconds to make our escape.

"Run. We should leave her here though. She would only slow us down." He made a cross with his fingers and I nodded, understanding what he meant.

We couldn't let her survive; she knew our names and that would make us so much easier to be tracked down.

So I had saved her from James and healed her, only to have to kill her again.

Yeah, that was a waste of time.

We both stood up and Bella calmed down a lot when she realised that we were leaving her, and headed towards the door.

However, when we both reached it, Jasper reached into his pocket and produced a small smoke grenade from him pocked, that when it explodes, will release smoke into the room and will suffocate her to death.

Neither of us really wanted to do it, but it was necessary.

"Sorry," I muttered to no-one in particular, before watching Jasper throw it into the room and slamming and locking the door shut, we then ran down the corridor to escape being arrested.

Her screams were the last thing I heard before we jumped out a window at the back of the building and then sprinting away from everything.

* * *

**AN:** This is going unedited until the morning. I am much too tired to edit now, and I am impatient and want the chapter up before I go to sleep. So I hope that you have seen past the countless of mistakes in this.

Yes, next chapter I will go into more detail with Bella and I think there will be a tiny bit of Edward in it as well :)

Remember to review pleaseee :D


	8. Trouble

_If I had my child to raise all over again,_  
_I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later._  
_I'd finger-paint more, and point the finger less._  
_I would do less correcting and more connecting._  
_I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes._  
_I'd take more hikes and fly more kites._  
_I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play._  
_I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars._  
_I'd do more hugging and less tugging._  
_~Diane Loomans_

**Bella POV:**

I was saved.

I could hear police sirens blaring from outside, I was going to be okay, I was going to be saved! Nothing else in the world could compare to how happy I was feeling in those few moments. It was no doubt the best emotion I have ever felt, knowing that I was cared about and that hopefully in a few hours I will be safe and sound in my bed.

Running away from my family was without a doubt, the most stupid and reckless thing I have ever done. Not that I had done many, but still. I now know what danger lies outside my front gates and I will always listen to my older brothers and my dad in the future, knowing that they have my best interests at heart, also because I don't want to put them through this again.

Edward's hand was still pressed against my mouth and I could see both him and the other guy staring intently at each other, fear plastered all over their faces. Naturally, I started screaming so that the police would come into this room first before they both got away, but unfortunately, my cries were muffled and when I tried to hit him, he grabbed my wrist and pinned it to the mattress.

"What should we do?" he asked the blonde, tightening his grip slightly on my wrist making me whimper.

"Run. We should leave her here though. She would only slow us down," he replied, making a cross with his fingers at which Edward nodded at. They both stood up fast and left for the door. I smiled triumphantly; I was half expecting them to shoot me before I left as I knew names and who they worked for etc... However, my victory was short lived as the blonde one pulled something out of his pocket and chucked it in my direction before both of them ran out of the room, locking the door behind them.

Only seconds later, smoke began pouring out of it, being released so fast in fact that I barely had time to register what was happening to me.

They were going to smother me to death. I guess I should have known, I mean they _are_ Cullen's and why had I been so naive to think they would just let me get away. I knew their names, what they looked like which could become crucial information to finding them. Of course, they couldn't just quickly shoot me in the head making it less uncomfortable that suffocating me to death, no, they had to use smoke.

"_It's not the fire that's the killer, it's the smoke..." _I heard Billy's voice float through my head and I remembered when he was telling me methods of killing someone.

The smoke was everywhere by now, filling every single part of free space within this room and within my body.

Even though I estimated that a minute had gone past perhaps, I had long since stopped screaming, knowing that it would only make the amount of toxic fumes I consume, rise. Of course, I had thought about just letting the smoke take over me, suffocating and erasing all of the little life I had left, as doing this would make death much faster than it already was. At the moment it was slowly creeping towards me, slowly incapacitating me until it sees fit to snuff all of my life out of me at the last possible moment.

But I knew that there were people outside, fighting to find a save me, so if I managed to hold on for a few more minutes, surely I would be discovered? That was the only tiny thread of hope I had left and that I could hold onto at the moment. Everything that I had been through these last few hours had finally taken its toll on me and I could feel my mental wall beginning to crumble down. Edward had no idea at how good he was at playing this game. He was _too_ good in fact and I knew that if I had spent a few more hours with him, I might just have caved in.

Edward Cullen.

Those two words sent hatred and anger running through my veins just at the mere thought of him. If he re-entered this room, I had no idea what I would do, but I know it would result in me giving him an injury and if I could manage it, hopefully break his nose. Not that I was strong enough to do anything to him, but a girl on her deathbed can still dream, right?

Edward was the reason why I was lying here on this filthy floor in this black room filled to the brim with smoke from the grenade he threw in here. He patched me up and made me nearly believe that everything was going to be alright. But then he turns around and pulled a stunt like this.

And so I vowed to myself when I could feel the rest of my strength leaving my body, that when I had fully died, I would return from my grave and haunt Edward Cullen until the day he dies himself.

I would not let him forget this.

The room began to blur and I was chocking for oxygen to relieve me from this. But my wish never came. I was giving up, I could feel it, my body was relaxing and my eyes were beginning to close. I tried to fight it, to stay awake for both me and my family but the urge was too strong and every second I was fighting against it, I was losing more energy and becoming more lethargic.

Eventually it became too much so I let myself fall in the black abyss that awaited me. But just before I let myself completely let go I faintly registered bangs and shouting.

And then that was it.

People were calling my name and I felt hands on my face – gently slapping at my cheeks, trying to rouse me unconsciousness. I was cold – in fact, I was very cold and if it wasn't for the pain I would have thought I was dead. I mean death shouldn't be this painful should it? It was supposedly all white and fluffy with beautiful angles flying around, singing in harmony. Not this, not this agonizing.

People were moving around me, shouting orders whilst I was being stabbed at with what I assumed were needles. However, I could not tell as I had a much more prominent pain emitting from my stomach – the stab wound. If it were possible, the pain seemed to have increased from when I was first injured. You would have thought that I would have grown to deal with the pain or that it would have decreased over the time, but no, it was much more excruciating than previously. On the other hand, I couldn't really complain could I? I was the one who ran away from home; I was the one who angered Edward and James so much that this happened to me. In fact, I could have avoided this injury and near death experience if only I had listened to Edward and given him what he wanted to know – well the little that I did know. My father was right in not telling me information, I was a liability and vulnerable to being kidnapped like I just was.

I could only faintly register what was going on but from the feel of the cold night air whipping against my face, I realised that I must have been removed from the building. Perhaps the movement was making the pain intensify by one thousand times. Okay, so maybe I was exaggerating, but I'm on my death bed, aren't I allowed too?

Something was building up in my smoked raw throat and suddenly I was wheezing and coughing for air, releasing all the smoke that I had inhaled into the chilly air, my lungs fighting for oxygen so that I could continue breathing although I was beginning to wonder if it was worth it. I mean, to me it seemed as though I was going to die anyway and in all honesty, I would rather die than live with a family who doesn't love me, the next few weeks of pain and the never-ending nightmares that I was certain I would receive nightly now due to this... experience. However, someone pressed something over my face – most likely an oxygen mask as within a few seconds my breathing was made easier somehow and I was not struggling as much for air.

Wanting to know what was going on, I tried to open my eyes but they would only open a few millimetres but after a few seconds of struggling I managed to open them fully to be greeted with an unfamiliar face was peering at me from above and behind her I could see the flashing lights of an ambulance and police cars. I found out that I could not speak with an oxygen mask on my face so I reached up to take it off but the lady grabbed my wrist and held it down to the trolley thing I was lying on.

"Isabella, is it?" The lady asked whilst checking for my pulse by placing two fingers on my wrist. Nodding, I tried to remove the oxygen mask again, but like before, I was stopped but by somebody else this time – it was Sam.

"Bella, you need to relax, stressing yourself out won't do anybody any favours. Just please, sit back and let the paramedic to her job," Sam said, moving one hand to my forehead and rubbing it slightly in an attempt to soothe me whilst his other hand kept a firm grip on my wrist.

"Right Isabella," the paramedic intervened, "I'm going to need to you to tell me where and how you got the injury on your stomach from and if you feel any pain in your body. I'm going to take the mask of for a few moments so you can speak, is that OK with you?" I nodded and within second's fresh air rushed into my lungs and inhaling deeply, a stab of pain shot through my stomach. Seeing the look of agony upon my face, Sam grasped my hand and rubbed it soothingly.

"How was this injury inflicted Isabella?" The lady asked. I concentrated on the two men behind her opening the back of the ambulance.

"Knife wound," I murmured.

"Okay," she replied, "and who stitched it up for you?"

I froze momentarily at her words – should I tell them who it was or not? Would Jasper and Edward, or maybe even _James_ come back for me and kill me in case I revealed their identities? In all fairness, I could probably get them thrown in prison or receive the capital punishment if I told my family who did this to me. But was it worth living the rest of my life in fear, knowing that there would people after me, wanting revenge for killing Carlisle Cullen's son? Weighing my options quickly, I soon came to a conclusion on what I should do. For now I would not tell who my kidnappers were in case they found me and successfully kill me – I did not want to lose my life.

"I don't know," I groaned as they lifted the gurney I was on into the ambulance. Same joined me in the back, keeping his hand wrapped around mine the whole time.

"What do you mean you don't know Bella? Do you not know who kidnapped you and by the looks of it, tortured you?" Sam asked, clearly not understanding me.

"Yes, I don't know who kidnapped me," I mumbled, closing my eyes so that I wouldn't have to see Sam's face.

"Isabella," the paramedic interrupted again before Sam could reply, "I'm going to have to lift your top up so I can assess your stomach injury if that's okay with you?" I nodded once, not opening my eyes and I felt cold air against my stomach flesh as she lifted up my top. I felt her poking around the wound and I gasped loudly as her finger strayed towards the extremely tender skin.

She murmured words such as "infection" and "treated fast" whilst she gently pulled my top up further and began pressing against sore spots on my ribcage. "You have an awful lot of bruises," she commented while she began prodding my ribs.

"Yes," I hissed, "the man kicked and punched me often when I wouldn't tell him what he wanted to know."

"What did he want to know Bella? What did you tell him? Was he a Cullen?" Sam asked, his tone becoming more serious by the second.

I opened my mouth to reply but thankfully the paramedic spoke up before I had the chance to. "Sir, I must have to ask you to hold your questions until our patient is in a stable condition. There is a high chance of internal bleeding and although we are nearing the hospitable, I would prefer it if Isabella is kept as relaxed as possible until after the operation." Sam nodded and shut his mouth but staring at me with worry and pity in his eyes.

"Internal bleeding?" I asked, feeling the panic bubble and rise within me. "Why would I have internal bleeding, surely I would have felt it?"

"Calm down miss," the paramedic said, gently placing her hands on my shoulder so that I would not try and sit up, "It is only a chance but once you are in the operating theatre, we should be able to fix it."

"Operating theatre? I don't need to have an operation! I'm perfectly fine, see? If there was internal bleeding surely we would know by now?" The panic was becoming almost unbearable by now and I could feel myself shaking. There was no way that I was willing to leave my life in somebody else's hands. I had watched programs about hospitals and how people did not always survive the operating table – why should I be one of them, especially that there was nothing seriously wrong with me, my wound had been stitched up, and so there really was no need.

"Isabella, trust me, the surgeons know that they are doing, they have gone through many years of training for instances like this. There is no danger, please relax."

"Please," I begged as tears began streaming down my face, "I'm fine, really, look!" And with that I attempted to get of the gurney but hands held me back down. "Please, I'm fine; I just want to go home!" I was sobbing now and tears were streaming down my face and through my blurred vision I could see Sam leaning over to the paramedic and whisper something in her ear, she nodded and bent down to retrieve something out of her bag.

"What are you talking about? Please just let me-"But before I could finish my sentence something pricked my arm and I looked down to see a syringe sticking out of it. "What-" I began but my eyelids drooped and my vision clouded over and before I knew it, I was out like a light.

Slowly, I began to register what was happening and there was a very distinct and annoying beeping in my ear and I groaned as it was giving me a headache. My senses slowly cam e back to me and I could feel aching in what seemed, every bone in my body. I groaned again and tilted my head towards the side and brought my hand to my forehead. Slowly and surely I opened my eyes to a bright white light, making me automatically shut my eyes just at the sheer force of it, a rested my eyes for a few seconds and opened them again, this time blinking a few times to let my eyes adjust to the new light. Once fully opened, I surveyed my surroundings and as I had guessed – I was in a hospital.

Currently, I was lying on a clean white bed, with crisp sheets and big pillows, there was a quilt draped over my legs, probably to keep me warm and my dressing gown and slippers were slung over an arm chair in the corner of the room. The room was not a typical hospital room which made me think that I was in a private room, away from the other patients. The walls were a deep crimson red, reminding me of blood in a way but also making the room seem slightly cosier. The curtains were also a deep crimson and they were pulled across the window so that I could not tell if it was day or night and there was no clock within my sight so I could not tell that way. Turning to my right I saw a many get well soon cards and bunches of flowers on a large side table, along with cute little teddy bears. Smiling to myself I turned my head forward just as a woman walked into the room.

"It's nice to see you are awake for a change," the lady said with a smile as she walked towards me. On closer inspection she looked to be in her mid fifties and was wearing nurse attire so I assumed she was here to take care of me.

"What happened?" I asked, "I have no recollection of what happened after the ambulance..." I trailed of and she checked a clipboard that was hanging at the bottom of the bed.

"I'm not surprised," she replied. "The doctor's have had to keep you sedated for the past few days after your operation. Whenever you came round you would begin screaming and crying so that you were sedated again."

"Oh," was all I could say in reply, slightly embarrassed by my actions.

There was silence for a few minutes whilst the nurse checked my temperature and refilled the bag of water which was attached to my arm. I turned my head away when she did this, I did not want to see what was going into my body and I did not want to see a needle sticking out of it either.

"You've had many visitors whilst you've been unconscious," the nurse commented. "Your father especially, he's been here every day since you were brought in and would bring some fresh flowers each time. In fact," she said glancing at her watch, "he should be here pretty soon, he always arrives about eleven." And as though my father was listening to our conversation, he strolled inside the room at that moment.

The nurse smiled at me again and said, "I'll leave you two to it then," and then left the room, shutting the door after her.

"Go away," I said firmly before my father had a chance to speak.

"Bella, I know you're mad at me but I didn't mean a word I said, I was just angry and you know what people are like when they get angry."

"When people are angry, they usually speak the truth and I know that what you said to me was the truth father, it has to be."

"Bella, please listen to me—"

"No," I said, turning away so that I wasn't facing him. "I don't want to hear it. And by the way, I'm moving out when I'm discharged."

"No you are not!" He bellowed, his face slowly turning red. "I am your father, you are only fifteen years old, a little girl practically and until you are married, you will be staying under my roof!"

Turning around, I stared him in the eye with a cold, hard stare and said coolly, "I have no father anymore Charles. To me, you are dead so I suggest you leave."

My words must have hit him hard because his face turned from red to pale and his expression turned pained and with once last glance at me he turned and fled the room.

**Edward's POV: **

"Would you like to explain this," my father exclaimed whilst pointing at the TV screen. Currently, we were sitting in his office with the door shut so that nobody could hear our argument.

"Not really, no," I replied calmly. "The situation sort of speaks for itself."

"Don't you DARE be so cheeky with me," Carlisle said, raising his voice. "Do you have any idea what situation your silly and careless plan has put us in?" He paused, expecting me to reply but he was met with silence.

"We were supposed to be keeping a low profile," he hissed, slamming his fists on his desk. "You have now put the whole country on high alert from activity from us. Thanks to you it is going to be very difficult for us to get equipment in and out of the country and we have to move bases right this second because the police and army are investigating our whereabouts closer!" He stopped ranting for a few seconds and stared at me, before saying, "Do you have nothing at all to say about all of this?"

"Not really, no," I replied, trying to keep m voice level because to be frank, my father was terrifying me right now, I had no idea what he was going to do – he was unpredictable like that.

He stared at me again and I began to shift under his gaze. "How could you Edward?" he whispered, "Isabella Swan is only fifteen years old! Do you know how inhumane your treatment of her was? She's Alice's age for Christ's sake Edward! What would you do if the Swan's tortured Alice, how would you feel then?"

The guilt was rising in my chest again and regret burned in my throat as I spoke, "I never meant for it to go this far. James was not supposed to harm her this bad, just push her around a bit until she spoke, I never meant for her to be stabbed in the stomach!"

"I am not just speaking about her torture, I am also talking about that fact that you and Jasper tried to suffocate her to death when you escaped! First you treat her like that, and then you try and kill her! The poor girl is going to be traumatised for the rest of her life!"

Ashamed, I looked at the floor, unable to meet my father's gaze who was full of shame and disappointment in me. "I'm sorry," I mumbled to my feet.

"Sorry doesn't cut it this time Edward," he snapped back. "I have been far too lenient with you, and now you will pay for it. I am taking you off all duties for the next year; instead you will just sort out all of the paper work."

"Dad that's not fair!" I protested.

"Life isn't fair Edward," he replied. "And what you did to Isabella was certainly not fair either."

Closing my eyes, I sighed. "As you wish."

"Good," my father replied, "you are dismissed."

Turning around, I walked towards the door and as I was turning the knob, my father called me back. "You are not to tell your mother or anyone else about this. Luckily for you, Isabella Swan has not claimed who kidnapped her, so for now, this stays between me, you and Jasper, is that understood?"

"Yes Sir," I replied and fled the office, running up towards my room where I could reflect in my appalling actions towards the girl.

* * *

**AN**: *Walks in sheepishly* Uh, hey, I know it has been a while and I would like to apologise so much for that! I have been suffering through GCSE's which I am finding very stressful and yeah, fanfiction had to take a back seat I'm afraid! But I am back now and I will try and update more frequently than I have for the past year and a half!

Follow me on twitter if you want to talk! I love talking to reviewers! My username is Dustyrose03 and there is a direct link on my profile, so yeah, hit the follow button and I'll follow back!

I missed you all when I was gone and I hope you don't hate me too much!


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